Bowls clubs in Poole to lose ALL council funding

Measures taken by Borough of Poole to cut its sports and recreation budget include ending thousands in grants for the town’s four outdoor bowls clubs – Alexandra Bowls, Branksome Park, Broad-stone Wessex and Poole Park.

Robin Pullman, secretary of the Alexandra Park bowling club told the Echo the club, which has just 30 members, is struggling to survive. With costs of around £9,000 a year just to maintain the green, they will have a £7,000 deficit next year alone.

“We’ve been in existence since 1925 – another 11 years and we would have come up to our centenary, but I suppose it’s hard to justify with the membership we’ve got,” he said.

Club captain Richard Cake said the council had consid-ered ending their grant to maintain the greens this year, but cabinet had agreed to treat them like the other clubs.

“We will be continuing for another year, hopefully more. But we need more members,” he said.

Gordon Tompsett, secretary of Broadstone Wessex Bowl-ing club, which has 167 mem-bers, said: “Most of us, dare I say, are getting on a little bit, but we will survive – we have to take our medicine.”

The proposals are part of an overall move by the council towards asking clubs to take on more responsibility for the facilities they use – or face higher rents or an end to the provision.

They were outlined in a report before the environment overview and scrutiny committee, and went to cab-inet on Tuesday, which high-lighted “the risk reducing or removing financial support may cause one or more clubs to move, merge or close.”

Committee chairman Cllr Tony Trent, said members were “very aware of the possible impact for the four clubs.” He added: “In view of this, the committee recomm-ended a phased reduction in grant to enable the clubs to adjust to new arrangements.

“At the same time, our officers will work with the clubs to help them become more sustainable, take greater control of facilities, reduce costs and attract income.”