Source:News.Com. AU

The Veneto Club in Beverley will be sold and converted into a mosque.

ONE of the west’s best known Italian clubs will be turned into a mosque under a plan being considered by Charles Sturt Council.

The Veneto Club in Beverley plans to move to a smaller site in the western suburbs after dwindling membership forced it out of its Toogood Ave base.

The club will sell the 3.3ha site to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association Australia.

But the deal requires rezoning approval from the council to change it from a community centre to a place of worship.

Veneto Club secretary Robert Griffante said member numbers had dwindled from more than 700 when the club opened in the 1970s to 220 today.

“There is a lot of sadness that we have to leave but our membership is getting older and older and we are struggling to attract younger members to the club,” Mr Griffante said.

“The current site is just way too big and it is not feasible for us to stay there.”