A plea to make sure indoor bowling is part of a £22.5 million plan to revamp Cleator Moor has been made to leading councillors.
As part of the Government’s Town Deal, ambitious plans were revealed in May to revamp the existing leisure centre – home of Cleator Moor Bowling Club – to include the potential creation of sports courts, enhanced gym facilities, a spin studio, group exercise studio and a cafe.
The bowls club is concerned that it has been forgotten in the redevelopment proposals.
It submitted a petition to Copeland Borough Council urging it to ensure indoor bowling was provided for in the new Cleator Moor Activity Centre.
Copeland Council’s executive members met in Whitehaven on Tuesday and discussed the petition.
Presenting the petition to members, deputy mayor David Moore said: “This petition has come in from the group that run the bowling facility on site. In moving it forward we have checked and on this occasion there are 294 signatures on this from Copeland residents.
“We recognise that since this petition has been received, there’s been an agreement that there’s going to be further discussions with the mayor and the Town Deal Board and obviously looking at if we can come to a suitable resolution for this.”
Mayor of Copeland Mike Starkie said: “I would add at this point, that since the petition has been received, I have attended a meeting with the petitioners and we put some potential solutions and proposals to the group at that stage and committed to make some further enquiries into some of the points that they raised in those discussions.”
A meeting was held on June 22 between the mayor, a member of the Town Deal Board and members of the Cleator Moor Bowling Club discussing the potential to maintain indoor bowling as part of a flexible offer using the space offered through the sports courts.
A report laid before councillors this week said: “This would not be bespoke indoor bowls provision to national standards but would allow indoor bowling to continue whilst opening up the space to new sports and new users.
“The meeting ended with agreement to explore the option further.”
The redevelopment of the sports facilities in Cleator Moor is designed to reach this goal, addressing “clear evidence of need around poor health outcomes and economic inequality.”
