Devastated members of a long-standing bowls club are fearing for its future after a council refused to U-turn on plans to exclude it from a new leisure centre.
Gedling Indoor Bowls Club’s future has been vulnerable since September 2025 after Gedling Borough Council decided to no longer include it in its plans for a new leisure centre in Carlton.
This ‘Carlton Active’ project involve a new centre being built on the Richard Herrod site and could include an eight-lane swimming pool and teaching pool, a 100-station gym, community rooms and a café.
Members of the bowls club – which opened in 1987 and is based in the Forum Leisure Centre – have been protesting for months to safeguard the club’s future. But in a meeting on Thursday (February 19) the council has confirmed its stance to exclude the bowls from the new centre remains unchanged.
The decision, the authority says, is due to “significant affordability, design and deliverability risks” and a required “significantly larger” footprint would likely result in the “highest-demand” facilities such as the swimming pool or gym being removed or reduced.
The council is continuing its offer of “non-financial” support to the club to look for relocation options.
But the club’s board of directors plans to continue fighting to ensure the bowls club has a secure location from which it can continue to operate. Its current lease runs out on April 30.
Speaking to the local democracy reporting service (LDRS), Jenny Higgins, a director at the club, said it would be taking a “two-pronged” approach going forward, putting pressure on the council to help find the group a new spot and work with their legal advisers.
She said: “A lot of people are very angry. A lot of people are completely and utterly distressed about it.
“I know myself and fellow directors will continue to fight – we’re not going to give up.”
Ms Higgins says the cost to refurbish a venue to accommodate a bowls hall is around £3 million.
She said: “The biggest issue is time and money we don’t have. The time we’ve got to [find the money] isn’t there.
“If they’d been open and honest with us back last February when we asked the question whether indoor bowling was still an option we could have probably got some grants, fundraising and sponsorship by then.”
The director added that because of this, she was “not very confident” about the club’s future at this stage.
The bowls club has around 320 members aged between 25 and 92 and runs 2,200 sessions each month, including for bowlers with disabilities.
Group members are “devastated” at the prospect their club could cease to exist, where it has acted as a “lifeline” for members who experience mental health difficulties and isolation while promoting physical activity for older members and those with disabilities.
Ms Higgins was diagnosed with cancer in 2024 and missed most of the 2024/25 season as she was receiving treatment.
While her diagnosis is “looking positive” now, she told the LDRS: “One of the things that’s helped me recover was being determined to get back onto the green in September 2025 as I finished chemotherapy.
“Knowing I could try get back to some sort of level of bowling ability, play with my friends, be competitive, have a laugh and not think about the fact I’ve had this diagnosis hanging over my head.
“Without that to come back to, I don’t think my health would have improved as much as it has, physically and mentally.”
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, previously telling the LDRS in September it was an “outlet” for his depression and anxiety.
He said: “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.”
Speaking at Thursday’s meeting, Councillor Henry Wheeler (Lab), portfolio holder for lifestyles, health and wellbeing, called the club “part of the fabric” of the community but reiterated the council’s financial risk.
He added: “The equality impact assessment recognises the importance of provision for older residents and those with conditions.
“Carlton Active responds with a fully accessible design and a dedicated exercise suite which uses power-assisted equipment, designed to support all adults, those with long-term health conditions, those undergoing rehabilitation.
“[The club’s] lease comes to a scheduled end on the 30th April, 2026, which has been known to the club for some time – this is not sudden or premature termination, it is not an eviction, it is a natural point of transition.”
Leader of the council, John Clarke (Lab), questioned whether Nottinghamshire County Council could help find a new home for the bowls, adding: “I think we do owe the bowls club… this game is disappearing across the country and we don’t want to be part of that, but we can’t finance this.
“If there’s any way forward we can apply pressure to get somewhere, there must be buildings, then we can assist Gedling bowls to carry on.”
Two petitions have been set up since September to save the club in council plans, with one having more than 1,000 signatures.
Earlier council documents said both existing leisure centres faced more than £2 million in backlog works and require a yearly subsidy of around £545,000. The new wider project is currently estimated to cost just under £30 million.
