When the RSA opted to join the then cash-strapped New Brighton Bowling Club after its headquarters were damaged in the earthquakes, the move included the addition of a games room so members could play snooker and darts at their new home on Mafeking St.
New Brighton RSA president Garry House said resource consent for the extension was contingent on the provision of off-street parking, which the bowling club did not have.
The RSA met with Christchurch City Council staff, with House recalling: "In the end the council said there’s good car parking right next door on council land, we can consider that, we’ll bang that on your resource consent, go ahead and build your building.
"The council were very positive and wanted us to do this development in New Brighton.
"They were pushing us so on the resource consent they put this car park and that caused us to build a new building (in 2017)."
The RSA spent about $750,000 on the project so were aggrieved when the city council-controlled ChristchurchNZ Holdings Ltd subsequently sold the land bordering Mafeking and Beresford Sts, which has space for about 100 vehicles.
Two other car parking areas on Beresford St have also been sold to Home Foundation, a charitable trust focused on the eradication of homelessness.
"The problem is without that car park we can’t really operate the club. There’s nowhere to park,” House said.
"They’re saying park in Oram Ave, that’s 250m-300m away. We’re dealing with RSA members, some of them are in wheelchairs.
"Our members don’t turn up on push bikes and scooters in leotards. They have to drive."
"When they issued the resource consent, there was no mention they were going to be sold.
"The council should not have ticked that box if they were going to sell it.
"If they didn’t know at the time, that’s fine, but they shouldn’t be selling that one block of land and they’ve just gone ahead and done it."
"If they (the city council) didn’t tick that off, we could not have built, and I doubt the RSA would have stayed at the bowls club (without a games room).
"We’d have probably gone to the working men’s club or the surf club," House said.
Home Foundation got in touch with House on Tuesday to establish contact and say it would notify the RSA when the car park was no longer available for use.
A spokesman for ChristchurchNZ said it was unable to respond to House’s concerns before the deadline.
House said the RSA objected when learning the land could be sold by ChristchurchNZ’s predecessor, Development Christchurch Ltd, in 2017 and predicted a backlash from the community.
"We’ve got people saying they’ll go and picket it when they start building. I think it’ll get really nasty and messy," House said.
