The club received a notice to terminate its licence to occupy the Mt Pleasant Community Centre on April 24 – giving it until tomorrow to get out.
The club and community centre are in adjacent buildings in McCormacks Bay.
The club’s legal move has seen tit-for-tat letters between its lawyer and a lawyer acting for the community centre in recent weeks.
This has led to the notice to quit being put on hold until arbitration is held between the squash club and community centre.
The club has grown over the past year from 12 to about 60 members, he said.
Methven believed the community centre may see the club as a “revenue earner”.
He said the club has cash reserves of about $50,000.
Star News has seen a transitional plan, which the community centre has for the squash club building.
It includes reburbishing the building and exploring a new booking system for the courts.
Community centre president Debbie Wolff said it believed the squash club has been in breach of this licence to occupy for “some time” and as a result had a formal notice of termination of the licence to occupy.
“The centre intends to fully participate in that arbitration and will be represented by an independent barrister,” she said.
“The centre confirms that squash and table tennis will continue to be played at the squash courts now and in the future.”
No date has been set for arbitration.
Said Methven: “Building a squash club these days is quite hard. When you lose one, you can’t replace it. That’s why we’re fighting so hard.”
“Our membership drive from 12 to 60 shows we’re actively working within the community,” he said. “It’s amazing how much it gets used.”
A year ago the squash club’s former committee was in the process of handing the club and building to the community centre, Methven said.
“Six of us stood up to refloat the club, takeover and rebuild it to stop MPCC from taking over,” he said.
Sumner Squash and Tennis Club president Paul Monk is an advisor on the community centre project team. He is also a Squash Canterbury board member.
