Members of a Carlton bowls club could be left “isolated” after a council decision not to include the club in a new leisure centre scheme.
Gedling Indoor Bowls Club members gathered earlier today (September 25) outside Gedling Borough Council in protest over a council decision that would effectively see the club excluded from the wider “Carlton Active” leisure centre redevelopment plans.
Back in July 2024, the authority’s cabinet agreed to progress work to replace Carlton Forum Leisure Centre and the Richard Herrod site with a new building due to the “urgent need” to modernise its “ageing” and “inefficient” leisure spaces.
The redevelopment has been called Carlton Active and would see a new leisure and community facility built on the Richard Herrod site, which could include an eight-lane swimming pool and teaching pool, a 100-station gym, community rooms and a café.
But the indoor bowls club – which has been running since 1987 – is based at the Richard Herrod site and the future of the club has been left vulnerable following a cabinet meeting today (September 25).
The authority’s cabinet met today to approve a set of decisions that assessed where the redevelopment project would head next – one decision now means the council will “offer non-financial support” to the bowls club in looking for relocation options.
The bowls club had been considered in the redevelopment plans until this decision and members now believe their outlet could disappear.
Speaking following the meeting, Ian Summerscales, director of the bowls club, said: “The most significant thing in this is that we know from the age range some of the players in the club that [the council is] effectively shortening people’s lives because of the impact of social isolation.
“We know that people don’t survive that for long.”
The club has over 230 members aged between 25 and 92 and runs 2,200 indoor bowling sessions each month, including sessions offered for disabled bowlers.
Margaret Smith MBE, founder of Disability Bowls England, told the LDRS: “Sometimes when [clubs] get moved, people don’t feel comfortable with it. People go in there and just meet each other, have a coffee, play cards – it’s more than just bowling.
“The majority of disabled bowlers now around the country will see Gedling as a home, because it is where [Disability Bowls England] started.”
The long-standing club has offered mental respite for some players, with 65-year-old Len Knight, who has been a member for 25 years, calling it an “outlet”.
He told the LDRS: “I had problems at work and it brought on depression and anxiety.
“The people at the bowls club understood my problem. They would listen to me. I could talk to them. It was more of a community that brought me back.
“I think me and quite a few other people that have had the same will be really struggling and we’ll be going back to the doctors and going back on therapy because we won’t have the outlet for the creativity to take your mind off things.”
Eighty-five-year-old Kath Smith, chairman of the board of directors of the club, said a lot of people are going to be mentally affected by the decision.
The council’s reasoning for excluding a bowls facility in the new centre is based on finances.
Speaking during the meeting, Lance Juby, assistant director of communities, leisure and wellbeing, said: “[The bowls option] would see an annual net deficit of £552,400 due to the estimated additional capital costs of providing this facility and borrowing repayments required for this.
“It’s estimated the cost of an additional bowls facility on-site would be between £5.6 million and £7.7 million.”
He said the inclusion of a six-lane bowls rink has a “significant impact” on the council’s borrowing potential and is “unviable”.
Councillor Henry Wheeler (Lab), portfolio holder for lifestyles, health and wellbeing at the council, said during the meeting: “It’s absolutely crucial to this borough’s future in terms of health and wellbeing. It’s a very inclusive project… a multi-generational offer.
“We’re not closing any facilities at this stage. We are consolidating our facilities and investing in the future. We will not be moving any facilities out… until we’ve got new facilities in place.”
Mr Summerscales said after the meeting that the council had “repeatedly refused” to extend the bowls club’s lease past April 2026.
More than 1,400 people responded to the council’s public consultation seeking residents’ views on the project, which saw support for the pool, family spaces and social spaces along with the need for football facilities in the area, and indoor bowls.
Part of the cabinet’s approval today means that further feasibility works will take place on the redevelopment option that would see soft-play included in plans – which would give a net income surplus of £50,500 – but does not include 3G football pitches.
Leisure is currently an area of council business that is costing the authority “one of the highest” subsidies at more than £1.3 million per year.
Carlton Forum and the Richard Herrod Centre currently face more than £2 million in backlog works and the two centres alone require a yearly subsidy of around £545,000, making them “unsustainable in their current form”, according to council papers.
