MORNING EDITION: Councillors slam latest bowls club decision

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😡 Councillors slam decision to exclude ‘lifeline’ bowls club from redevelopment plans

Gedling councillors have slammed their authority’s decision to exclude a long-standing bowls club in leisure centre redevelopment plans and called for a pause on decisions.

The group of Conservative councillors have called on Labour-run Gedling Borough Council to reconsider keeping the club in plans by ensuring the decision is re-assessed by a committee.

Gedling Borough Council has plans in the pipeline to build a brand-new ‘Carlton Active’ leisure centre on the site of the existing Richard Herrod Centre in Carlton.

This project will involve demolishing and replacing the Richard Herrod Centre and Carlton Forum Centre with the new, singular facility – but it will come at more than one cost.

Last Thursday (19), the council’s cabinet re-confirmed its stance that Gedling Indoor Bowls Club, based at the Richard Herrod Centre, would not be included in the Carlton Active scheme due “significant” design and money risks – leaving the club’s future vulnerable and members ‘angry and distressed’.

Gedling Indoor Bowls opened in 1987 and has around 320 members aged between 25 and 92, running 2,200 sessions each month, including for bowlers with disabilities. Members have been protesting for months to safeguard its future.

The authority said it would be continuing its offer of “non-financial” support to the club to help it look for relocation options.

Now, a group of authority’s Conservative councillors – Cllr Mike Adams, Cllr Martin Smith and Cllr Sam Smith – have triggered a “call-in” on the council’s decision to exclude the club from plans, meaning the decision is expected to further examined by its Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Cllr Sam Smith said: “It’s an absolute disgrace the council has decided to close one of the only indoor bowling greens in the county on what seems to me is done on the back of a flawed process.

“There is a petition signed by hundreds of people [to reinstate the club in plans] that just seems to have been totally ignored by the cabinet – we’re asking for that to be reviewed and taken into account.”

Cllr Smith said the incoming reorganisation and merging of Nottinghamshire councils – meaning the borough council will not exist as it is in future – is another issue to consider.

He said: “Gedling is at a high risk of [merging with] Nottingham city. You’ve got the council who are about to spend millions of pounds building a new leisure centre that they’re going to hand the keys to the new authority for.”

In a statement announcing the ‘call-in’, Cllr Mike Adams said: “Residents engaged in good faith with this process, yet the strength of feeling from the community does not appear to have been properly recognised in the final decision – that is deeply concerning and warrants full scrutiny.”

Cllr Martin Smith said the club was “a lifeline, not a luxury” for many residents, with the Conservative councillors calling for the implementation of the council’s decision to be paused while the situation is re-examined.

Responding to the efforts to pause the council’s decision, Jenny Higgins, a director at the bowls club, told the LDRS it “welcomes” the step.

She said: “Indoor bowls is not a -‘nice to have’ – it is a lifeline.

“The depth of support shown is matched only by the depth of feeling in the community to save this much-needed and deeply loved sport, and to stop the displacement of the member and community bowlers without sufficient mitigation.

“This decision must now be paused and properly scrutinised. Anything less would ignore the people whose lives and wellbeing depend on this facility.”

Ian Summerscales, a fellow director at the club, told the LDRS it had been a “tough few days” for the club since the council’s decision but thanked the councillors who are showing their support.

He said: “The level of support we have received has at times felt overwhelming, but it shows the depth of feeling among not only club members but the wider community.”

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.”

Council leader, John Clarke (Lab), spoke of applying pressure, including to Nottinghamshire County Council, to find the bowls club a new home saying “we owe the bowls club”.

Two petitions have been set up since September to protect the club’s future, 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.

Lauren Monaghan,
Local Democracy Reporter

🕳️ County councillor suggests going to Norway to see how they deal with potholes

Two Reform Nottinghamshire councillors asked the East Midlands Combined Authority (EMCCA) if it could help sort out the county’s major road issues as it was admitted that the current method of patching over individual potholes does not work.

The EMCCA investment committee, made up of Derby city, Derbyshire, Nottingham city and Nottinghamshire councillors, met on Monday, February 23, to discuss where EMCCA’s government money was being placed in the 2026/2027 financial year.

EMCCA took over the responsibility for transport across the four constituent councils at the end of January and received £2bn from the government last June, which can be spent on roads.

Earlier in January, EMCCA’s transport committee voted to provide £120m of roads funding to the region’s highways, split between the four councils, in 2026-2027, which Monday’s investment committee was told about.

But raising the issue that current approaches don’t work, Reform Nottinghamshire county councillor Stuart Matthews asked EMCCA’s head of transport investment Alex Linton whether it was worth looking at how other, colder countries sort out their roads.

He said: “It’s our first foray into potholes as councillors but it just seems to be a bunfight this time of the year, patching and moving – which doesn’t seem to work. We’re running around all over Nottinghamshire filling these potholes in that don’t work.

“Has EMCCA got a commission that’s going out to colder countries and looking at how they do it properly? It seems to me after 10 months we’re just doing the same thing every year and every year.

“We all know we haven’t got enough money for all our roads. We’ve got to think outside the box on this. I hear Norway has this special resin that they do in -40. For us a bit of rain comes down and poof!”

A colleague of Cllr Matthews on the county council, Reform’s James Rawson, also weighed in on the pothole discussion.

He said: “One of my frustrations with the roads seems to be the amount of times that the utility companies [do] poor repairs to be fair, to say these people are supposed to be the experts that are doing this nationally.

“I just don’t get the impression that these people are being genuinely held to account. When we go back to them, when there is an issue, these commercial organisations are dragging their feet, they’re finding reason not to [act].

“We’re all as councillors taking all the pain for this. Couldn’t EMCCA get something together where they have some sort of real clout to hit these people over the head and start fines or whatever to try and get these roads fit quicker?”

Mr Linton said that EMCCA does not have the direct responsibility for the highways but that powers are available to constituent councils to apply a licence scheme, meaning that any companies dealing with roads have to obtain a licence from the council before any work is done.

Joseph Connolly,
Local Democracy Reporter

🚧 Roadworks and closures planned for Gedling borough this week

Take a look at the roadworks and closures scheduled for Gedling borough’s roads for the week beginning February 23.

Make sure to plan your journey and check before your travel as these planned works could affect you. 

Belper Avenue, Carlton
26 February - 26 February
Road closure
Responsibility for event: Nottinghamshire County Council

Burton Road, Gedling
26 February - 01 March
Roadworks, Delays likely next to the crossing point
Responsibility for works: Nottinghamshire County Council

Carlton Hill, Carlton
01 March - 02 March
Road closure
Responsibility for works: Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure

Frederick Avenue, Carlton
01 March - 02 March
Road closure
Responsibility for works: Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastru

Gedling Road, Arnold
27 February - 02 March
Roadworks, Delays likely
Responsibility for works: Nottinghamshire County Council

High Street, Arnold
26 February - 27 February
Roadworks, Delays likely

Main Road, Ravenshead
25 February - 26 February
Roadworks, Delays likely over junction of Summercourt Drive
Responsibility for works: Nottinghamshire County Council

Mapperley Plains, Mapperley
26 February - 27 February
Roadworks, Delays likely
Responsibility for works: Nottinghamshire County Council

Oxclose Lane, Arnold
28 February - 28 February
Roadworks, Delays likely with lane closure
Responsibility for works: Severn Trent Water

Cavendish Road, Carlton
26 February - 26 February
Roadworks, Delays possible
Responsibility for works: Severn Trent Water

Church Lane, Linby
25 February - 26 February
Roadworks, Delays possible from outside Hayden Villa to the junction
Responsibility for works: Nottinghamshire County Council

Churchmoor Lane, Redhill
25 February - 26 February
Roadworks, Delays possible
Responsibility for works: Nottinghamshire County Council

Church Street, Lambley
27 February - 02 March
Roadworks, Delays possible
Responsibility for works: Nottinghamshire County Council

Edwin Street, Arnold
24 February - 26 February
Roadworks, Delays possible
Traffic management: Traffic control (give & take) to install new Disable bay
Responsibility for works: Nottinghamshire County Council

Furlong Avenue, Arnold
25 February
Roadworks, Delays possible
Responsibility for works: Severn Trent Water

Haddon Road, Ravenshead
25 February - 27 February
Roadworks, Delays possible
Responsibility for works: Openreach Ltd 

Kingswell Road, Arnold
25 February - 26 February
Roadworks, Delays possible just before junction with Arnot Hill
Responsibility for works: Nottinghamshire County Council

Lambley Lane, Gedling
27 February
Roadworks, Delays possible
Responsibility for works: Severn Trent Water

Longdale Lane, Ravenshead
26 February - 27 February
Roadworks, Delays possible just before the junction with The Heyes
Responsibility for works: Nottinghamshire County Council

Nottingham Road, Ravenshead
01 March
Roadworks, Delays possible
Responsibility for works: Openreach Ltd

Park Lane, Lambley
25 February - 02 March
Roadworks, Delays possible from Grange Close to just before Lambley Road
Responsibility for works: Nottinghamshire County Council

Ravenswood Road, Arnold
27 February - 02 March
Roadworks, Delays possible
Responsibility for works: Nottinghamshire County Council

Sidlaw Rise, Arnold
25 February - 26 February
Roadworks, Delays possible
Responsibility for works: Severn Trent Water 

Woodthorpe Drive, Woodthorpe
27 February - 02 March
Roadworks, Delays possible
Responsibility for works: Nottinghamshire County Council

🌤️ WEATHER UPDATE

Here's what's in store...

Morning fog and low cloud will lift to give a dry and mild day, with brighter spells. Cloud will thicken in the afternoon, with possible rain later. Tonight it will be overcast with low cloud and light rain and drizzle at times. Winds will gradually be increasing by the morning.

Tomorrow it will be cloudy to start, becoming overcast with rain and showers moving in during the afternoon and overnight.