A last-ditch petition has been set up in an attempt to save an indoor bowls club heading for closure after the council confirmed its exclusion in new leisure centre plans.
The fate of Gedling Indoor Bowls Club has been in limbo since September 2025 after Gedling Borough Council decided to no longer include it in plans to replace Carlton Forum Leisure Centre and the Richard Herrod Centre with a new building.
The project would involve a new ‘Carlton Active’ leisure and community facility 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 have been protesting for months to safeguard the club’s future but now council documents, released ahead of a meeting on Thursday (19), re-confirm the authority does not plan to retain indoor bowls in plans.
This, the authority says, is due to “significant affordability, design and deliverability risks”.
Councillor Darren Maltby (Con) branded the decision a “complete and utter travesty”.
In response to the council’s re-confirmed stance, Cllr Maltby started a petition on February 14 to include a bowls facility at the new centre. At the time of writing the petition had 197 signatures.
He said: “I come from a welfare background for over 20 years and I’ve seen the impact closing facilities have on vulnerable people – not just the elderly, but also disabled people.
“It’s an inclusive sport – one of the few in Gedling, if not the only one.
“We’ve come out of lockdown where it was big on social isolation – here we’re taking a backward step. It might be their only communication with another human being and it’s taking that lifeline away.”
The bowls club has around 320 members aged between 25 and 92 and runs 2,200 sessions each month, including sessions for disabled bowlers. Its lease expires at their existing site at the end of April 2026.
At the council’s September meeting the authority offered “non-financial support” to the bowls club to look at relocation options.
Following this, a petition signed by more than 1,000 people was presented to councillors in a November meeting calling on the authority to “reinstate, retain and protect” indoor bowling in plans – the authority’s response was later confirmed for Thursday’s cabinet meeting.
Cllr Maltby added he was worried about members’ mental wellbeing if the club closed for good and added: “It’s been such an integral part of that centre, they’ve been providing revenue, it’s not like they just sit there.
“They buy food and drinks there… these are people who have paid into the system all their lives – we live in a modern age now where we can have multi-purpose rooms.”
The authority says it has assessed a potential smaller-rink bowls option instead of a six-rink facility but that “the addition of a 3-rink, 4-rink or 6-rink facility would result in a level of cost that would render the scheme unaffordable” due to the building needed clear spans, high ceilings and environmental controls if included.
Documents continue that including the bowls would require a “significantly larger” footprint which could likely result in key “highest-demand” facilities such as the swimming pool or gym being removed or reduced.
Ian Summerscales, director of the bowls club, told us an application has been submitted to have the bowls hall regarded as an asset for community value.
He said: “The council keeps saying they’ve consulted on a four-rink option, we pressed them on that. All there are is some handwritten notes.
“We wrote to the council’s leadership over a month ago specifically about a feasibility study and them being obliged to find us alternative venues. We haven’t even had an acknowledgement, haven’t had a reply – we feel like we’re being stonewalled at the moment.
“We’re devastated. It isn’t a small club, it isn’t a private club. We’ve had people in tears, I’ve been in tears myself, but we’re getting lots of support and the staff in the centre are absolutely brilliant considering they’re at risk as well.”
Mr Summerscales previously said the council had identified 18 potential sites for relocation and were “not worth the paper it’s written on” and raising the money to move into such sites was a “pipe dream”.
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, making them “unsustainable in their current form”.
Thursday’s cabinet is set to agree the closure of the Richard Herrod Centre from May 1, 2026.
The wider project is currently estimated to cost just under £30 million.
The council was contacted for com
