3:22pm Tuesday 9th February 2010
By Catherine Pye
BOWLERS are appealing to the community to keep their dreams of an indoor centre for East Lancashire alive.
Two hundred members of Blackburn Indoor Bowling Club were forced off their four rinks in Albion Mill when the site closed in August 2008, and now have to make a 68-mile round journey to a centre in Blackpool.
Last September, the committee was granted permission to change the use of a unit in Glenfield Business Centre, Blakewater Road, Blackburn, into a centre with six lanes each 37 metres long.
A recommendation was put forward by council officers that £130,000 of next year’s budget be used to part fund the project, with the rest raised through grants.
However, at a recent meeting, members were told that the recommendation was unlikely to progress, and so they must look to other avenues of funding such as agreements where developers of new business ventures are asked to provide facilities for the local community.
Member Bill Stemp said: “People don’t realise just how popular indoor bowling is.
“We have a list of 300 people throughout East Lancashire who are very serious about becoming members of a facility in this area, but there is nothing for them.
“The council do a lot of good work by putting on short mat sessions in sports halls for free, but the difference between short mats and real indoor rinks is like chalk and cheese.
“We need now to see if entrepeneurs and businesses will support us in this.
"It would be a great chance to invest in a business that would make money and bring people into Blackburn.”
Fellow member Dave Wilson said: “We hope to get a lot of children playing and it will help the community to socialise.”
It is thought £170,000 would be needed to complete the work. A bid to Sport England for £35,000 failed last year.
Leisure boss Coun Michael Law-Riding, said: “We are supportive of the project but there are a number of demands on the capital programme in a difficult economic climate.
“We will continue to work with them and try to help them access alternative funding and if the economic climate should change we would look at the possibilities of capital support."
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