MORNING EDITION: Fight continues to save bowls club

Good morning 🌅 A packed edition for you this morning! Here's your latest email updating you on the latest news and information from across Gedling borough. We'll have more for you on Tuesday!

✊ We’re not giving up’: Fight continues to save staple bowls club as decision taken to close Carlton leisure centre home

Devastated members of a long-standing bowls club are fearing for its future after a council refused to U-turn on plans to exclude it from a new leisure centre.

Gedling Indoor Bowls Club’s future has been vulnerable since September 2025 after Gedling Borough Council decided to no longer include it in its plans for a new leisure centre in Carlton.

This ‘Carlton Active’ project would involve a new centre 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 – which opened in 1987 and is based in the Forum Leisure Centre – have been protesting for months to safeguard the club’s future. But in a meeting on Thursday (February 19) the council has confirmed its stance to exclude the bowls from the new centre remains unchanged.

The decision, the authority says, is due to “significant affordability, design and deliverability risks” and a required “significantly larger” footprint would likely result in the “highest-demand” facilities such as the swimming pool or gym being removed or reduced.

The council is continuing its offer of “non-financial” support to the club to look for relocation options.

But the club’s board of directors plans to continue fighting to ensure the bowls club has a secure location from which it can continue to operate. Its current lease runs out on April 30.

Speaking to the local democracy reporting service (LDRS), Jenny Higgins, a director at the club, said it would be taking a “two-pronged” approach going forward, putting pressure on the council to help find the group a new spot and work with their legal advisers.

She said: “A lot of people are very angry. A lot of people are completely and utterly distressed about it.

“I know myself and fellow directors will continue to fight – we’re not going to give up.”

Ms Higgins says the cost to refurbish a venue to accommodate a bowls hall is around £3 million.

She said: “The biggest issue is time and money we don’t have. The time we’ve got to [find the money] isn’t there.

“If they’d been open and honest with us back last February when we asked the question whether indoor bowling was still an option we could have probably got some grants, fundraising and sponsorship by then.”

The director added that because of this, she was “not very confident” about the club’s future at this stage.

The bowls club has around 320 members aged between 25 and 92 and runs 2,200 sessions each month, including for bowlers with disabilities.

Group members are “devastated” at the prospect their club could cease to exist, where it has acted as a “lifeline” for members who experience mental health difficulties and isolation while promoting physical activity for older members and those with disabilities.

Ms Higgins was diagnosed with cancer in 2024 and missed most of the 2024/25 season as she was receiving treatment.

While her diagnosis is “looking positive” now, she told the LDRS: “One of the things that’s helped me recover was being determined to get back onto the green in September 2025 as I finished chemotherapy.

“Knowing I could try get back to some sort of level of bowling ability, play with my friends, be competitive, have a laugh and not think about the fact I’ve had this diagnosis hanging over my head.

“Without that to come back to, I don’t think my health would have improved as much as it has, physically and mentally.”

The long-standing club has offered mental respite for some players, with 65-year-old Len Knight, who has been a member for 25 years, previously telling the LDRS in September it was an “outlet” for his depression and anxiety.

He said: “The people at the bowls club understood my problem. They would listen to me. I could talk to them. It was more of a community that brought me back.”

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.”

Leader of the council, John Clarke (Lab), questioned whether Nottinghamshire County Council could help find a new home for the bowls, adding: “I think we do owe the bowls club… this game is disappearing across the country and we don’t want to be part of that, but we can’t finance this.

“If there’s any way forward we can apply pressure to get somewhere, there must be buildings, then we can assist Gedling bowls to carry on.”

Two petitions have been set up since September to save the club in council plans, 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

💊 Drugs and cash seized by police in Calverton raid

A police raid led to the seizure of heroin, cocaine and thousands of pounds in cash in Calverton last week.

Neighbourhood teams forced open the door of a home in Broom Road to execute the warrant on Wednesday (18).

They found Class A drugs, as well as further large amounts of cannabis, cannabis edibles, magic mushrooms and equipment associated with drug dealing.

During searches officers also found bundles of cash and high-value items.

A man, who was found inside the property, was arrested following the raid around 8am.

Officers also arrested a woman in relation to the investigation after pulling over a car in Woodborough a short time later.

During searches of the vehicle, further cash and a mobile phone were seized.

Officers later found additional dugs, including cocaine, cannabis, ketamine and magic mushrooms, inside another car parked in Broom Road.

A 37-year-old man and a woman, aged 32, have been arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of Class A and Class B drugs.

The woman was also arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of Class C drugs.

Sergeant Alison Riley, of the Gedling Central neighbourhood policing team, said: “This intelligence-led raid uncovered evidence of a large-scale and lucrative drugs business.

“Criminality of this nature brings nothing but problems to any community so it was pleasing to take positive action against it.

“It is always good news when we can take drugs off the streets, as well as seize cash and goods we suspect have been sourced through drug dealing."

📻 Prolific sex offender from Daybrook back in prison after making threat to BBC radio presenter and deleting messages on his phone

A registered sex offender is back behind bars after threatening a BBC radio presenter and breaching a strict court order that prohibited him from deleting messages on his phone without permission.

Michael James, aged 57, has convictions for sexual offences dating back to 1993 – including against children – and been subject to multiple Sexual Harm Prevention Orders.

In April 2021, he was jailed for two-and-a-half years for sending his probation officer a video of a sex act and committing an act outraging public decency at a bus stop in Nottingham.

Upon his release, he was made subject of a prevention order with 11 strict conditions, with one stating he “must not delete any electronic messages from any electronic communication device without the express permission of a representative of the Chief Constable for the respective police area”.

On November 21 last year, officers visited his address after it was reported he had sent a threatening and offence message into BBC Radio Nottingham that had been racially aggravated and aimed at one of the station's presenters.

He was arrested and taken into custody, where checks found he had deleted a number of WhatsApp messages sent to the radio station from his device.

James, of Frobisher Gardens, Daybrook was subsequently charged with sending a communication threatening death or serious harm and breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

He pleaded guilty to both offences and was jailed for 40 weeks after appearing at Nottingham Crown Court on Tuesday (17).

Sergeant Elizabeth Williams, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “James has an appalling criminal record and had multiple spells behind bars.

“As a result, he is on the sex offenders register for life and made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, which are designed to protect the public from individuals like James.  

“As he has just found out to his cost, these orders have real teeth, and the courts take a very dim view of those who flout them in any way.

"The judicial system has also made it clear that the right to freedom of expression does not extend to sending grossly offensive and threatening messages and the abuse James subjected the presenter to was simply unacceptable.

“I am pleased James is back behind bars and he should be in no doubt about what will happen to him if he commits any further offences of this kind in the future."

🍺 Gedling MP joins fight to save Arnold Wetherspoons following news of closure

Gedling MP Michael Payne has joined the fight to save an Arnold pub after staff got in touch to share fears about its future.

Mr Payne took to social media over the weekend to share the news that The Ernehale pub is facing the threat of being sold and closed by owners Wetherspoons.

He has now written a letter to brewery bosses calling for a meeting to discuss their proposed closure plans and 'explore any alternatives to avoid the closure'.

The MP said: "Losing Arnold’s Wetherspoons would result in job losses for local families, leave yet another vacant building in the heart of Arnold and our local community would lose an affordable venue where many elderly residents come together to meet friends.

"I’ve now written to the Chairman and Chief Executive of JD Wetherspoon plc urging them to reconsider any decision to sell off and close The Ernehale in Arnold."

The MP has also created a petition and has called on the public to back the campaign to save the pub from shutting its doors for good.

He wrote: "Let’s send a strong message from Arnold’s community to JD Wetherspoon plc urging them to reconsider their decision and keep Arnold’s Wetherspoons open."

Click here to sign the petition https://c.org/XMRtmbck7N

🌤️ WEATHER UPDATE

Looking out the window so you don't have to...

Today it will be mostly dry with sunny spells in the morning, although isolated showers are possible at first. Cloud will start thickening in the early afternoon, with outbreaks of rain. There will be strong and gusty winds easing. Mild, but feeling cooler in the wind.

Tonight it will be cloudy with outbreaks of rain but this will slowly ease to become largely dry by dawn, perhaps with some clear spells.