Waterside centre

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Fears for century-old regatta as canoe club buy contentious land

TELEGRAPH Sport has uncovered curiously muddied water around the rebuilding of a rowing club on the Thames and the future of the century-old Reading Town Regatta, where Steve Redgrave won one of his first trophies.

The site of the original regatta boat-house and the future of the recreational Thames Valley Park Rowing Club have been the subject of ongoing concern for the rowing community over the alleged intentions of the Waterside Centre, a predominantly canoeing club just down the river.

The secretary of the regatta. Peter Moore, claims that the Waterside Centre, who have now bought the plot of land recently freed from a 100-year lease, are opposed to rebuilding the boathouse burnt down in 1996.

"The bottom line is that with no boathouse the regatta is threatened. It is urgent we rebuild it as there is nowhere to store the boats and the pool of personnel to run the regatta is dwindling."

John Cooper, the chairman of the Waterside Centre, said there was no problem and played down any rivalry between rowers and canoeists. "We want to offer rowing at the Waterside Centre," he said. "The rowing club can start building their boathouse on the original imprint as soon as they like. I've always supported the rowing community."

But the chairman of the regatta, Chris Walker, said: "John Cooper does not agree with our plans for rebuilding the boathouse. He wants it to be moved back at an unacceptable cost so the Waterside Centre has a more agreeable line of sight. Even if we are permitted to build the boathouse the Waterside Centre might charge us prohibitive rent and contribution fees."

The president of the regatta, former government whip Sir Anthony Durant, said: "John Cooper has never seen rowing as important. He has never taken this line before. We don't know what he will do with this land."

The Thames Valley Rowing Club host the Reading Town Regatta - which dates back to 1877 - the weekend before Henley and it attracts a host of overseas crews. The club also host a large annual junior event, the Thames Valley Park Regatta.

James Cracknell, the Olympic and world championship-winning oarsman, who once competed in the junior regatta, said: "It would be particularly sad to lose the junior event as it was an excellent event for schools and clubs who don't get much opportunity to compete."

Charlie Norton

Reprinted from the Daily Telegraph 4 Jan 2002

iGreen thought 8Jan 2002

What's really going on here? How did a canoe club manage to buy out a 100-year-old rowing club. Is it one of the largest and most dynamic canoe clubs in the land? Has the rowing club fallen on hard times? Did the paddlers get a government grant denied to the oarsmen? Let us know if you have any inside information.

27 August 2002 update.

Guess what? As iGreens suspected, Wokingham canoe club did not raise the resources themselves to buy the rowing club land. Oh no! Someone screwed it out of the taxpayer!

The Waterside centre is a council boondoggle. The custom-built, multi-million-pound white elephant is not, and never has been, a commercial operation. Paid for by Wokingham Council, it feeds off council grants and other bits of tax like the lottery fund, supplemented by sponsorship from local firms looking for a tax break or to ingratiate themselves with the council. The membership fees of the canoeists nowhere near cover the costs.

There never was much real demand for the centre. Thames Valley Rowing club would have preferred to be left alone, canoe clubs simply don't build multi-million pound clubhouses, and even the Waterside centre website admits that the facilities are "crying out to be fully utilized".

However, since we wrote it seems that the Waterside centre have persuaded Thames Valley Rowing club to host the Reading Regatta from their facilities, presumably in their own mind justifying some of the millions spent.

I'm a canoeist, and I've often paddled the Thames, but that's no reason to support this nonsense. When will busybody councillors stop polluting the rivers of England with "multi-million-pound water-activity centres"?

Jim Thornton 27 August 2002

Footnote:

Reading Canoe club have asked us to make clear that they are distinct from Wokingham canoe club/Waterside Centre, and have no involvement in this dispute. This we are delighted to do.

Footnote: 20 Oct 2003

	Wokingham Canoe Club have also written to say they had nothing to do with buying the land. They just rent their boat space and use the facilities.
	Even the people who get cheap use of these council-funded facilities are distancing themselves from the boondoggle now.

10 June 2005

Chris Withers writes - I am a junior leader for a local sea scout group and would just like to say that many of our scouts have benefited from the Wokingham waterside centre. Its excellent facilities have provided them with opportunities they otherwise might not have had and they have all enjoyed the activities immensely. I believe the centre has a major role in introducing young people to water sports and is a valuable part of the community.