Our club is a gem that must be saved . . .
DESPITE all the advice about how important it is for older people to exercise regularly, my district council wants to get rid of a popular indoor bowls hall. West Lindsey Council has decided that this facility, which was purpose-built in 1991 with an £80,0000 grant from the Sports Council, is going to be ‘refurbished’ to make way for a Health and Wellbeing Centre, at a cost of £1.4 million, in the newly revamped Gainsborough Leisure Centre. The bowls hall, which is mainly used by the over-65s for eight months of the year and for open bowls drives all year round, is an excellent venue for fitness, socialising and, indeed, wellbeing. Considering all the other sports available at the leisure centre for the younger generations, is this age discrimination? Bowling is one of the few sports we can all look forward to as we go into the autumn of our lives and due to its combination of mental and physical skills, it can be as gentle or as competitive as you choose. One in five of the local population is over 65 and by 2025 it has been calculated this will have risen to one in four, so surely it is short-sighted to remove a challenging sport for older people. The district council has offered to provide us with short mat bowls — but that is like telling a golfer to play crazy golf. We are presenting our petition, with 1,800 signatures, at the council meeting on Monday, asking councillors to reconsider their decision. Our bowls hall is a little gem and the bowlers should be applauded for keeping fit. LINDA GROCOCK, Gainsborough, Lincs.