Protest after bowls club left out of council’s plan for redeveloping leisure

DIRECTOR SAYS AUTHORITY ‘REPEATEDLY REFUSED’ TO EXTEND LEASE

- By LAUREN MONAGHAN

Ian Summerscales and Kath Smith are members of Gedling Indoor Bowls Club

MEMBERS of a Carlton bowls club could be left “isolated” after a council decision not to include the club in anew leisure centre scheme.

Members of Gedling Indoor Bowls Club gathered on Thursday outside Gedling Borough Council to protest 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 Thursday's cabinet meeting.

The cabinet met 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.