From the Dover Express, 10 June 2010.

Bluebirds given two years to takeoff.

Function room' hopes to revive its fortunes.

Report by Yamurai Zendera

A TRUSTEE of Bluebirds function room in Dover has scotched rumours it is still for sale and insists it is open for trade. Bob Duffield said the confusion started when the Snargate Street business was put on the market 18 months ago due to dwindling custom. However, Dover Sea Angling Association, which owns the premises, took it off last month and entrusted Mr Duffield with reviving its fortunes.

The 63-year-old said: "We can take bookings and we will take bookings.

"It's a case of use it or lose it. I have been given two years to get it on an even keel otherwise we could put it back on the market and sell it."

The former carpenter, who has been with the angling association for 40 years, said it would be a "real shame" if Bluebirds were to close. The venue, as it is now, opened in 1997, but before that it was a place where anglers would weigh their catches, hold competitions and park their vehicles.

Mr Duffield, a married father of-two, said: "In the 1980s it was just a corrugated steel-framed shed with a little bit of parking. It was decided that we would develop the site and we came up with the idea of building a function room and restaurant.

"Things took off and it was initially very successful. But then over the years it just sort of fell away.

"It was not a thing wanted by the anglers. They preferred to use our clubhouse in Priory Road, which has been with us since 1976, but Bluebirds was a more upmarket place used mainly by the public.

"The economic climate now has not helped the situation at all and the building was put on the market to see what kind of interest there was."

Rumours

Rumours over Bluebirds closure surfaced when it no longer took advanced bookings due to the uncertainty caused by the possible sale.

The ex-Archers Court pupil added: "Over the last couple of years people have been phoning in to make bookings in advance for the following year or even beyond that.

"We have not been able to say yes we can take your booking because we could not guarantee we would have the place.

"We were losing bookings on that basis. "But now that I'm trying to put it on an even keel, it would be a real shame if it turns out to be something people do not want."

Dover-born Mr Duffield believes it should prove easier to rejuvenate Bluebirds as its mortgage was cleared last year, removing a major overhead.

• To contact Bluebirds, call 01304 226586.