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I could have C&P but didn't want to make it look as if you were choosing to exclude those without social media access.I shall therefore C&P the responses to your post.Caroline Allen Guy, this isn’t the case. Not ‘everyone has accepted’ far from it. Have liased with a number of club members and local community members who believe club can be saved. We will have to see what can be done. Have seen the green- your photo doesn’t show the concrete boulders now in situ there. The overgrowth is easily tackled and we could fund raise as volunteers for equipment. This club provided a hub for exercise, socialising and wellbeing for local residents and was doing well with a plan to extend before being asked to leave due to plans to turn it into a pitch and putt. These people have been left heartbroken. It is unacceptable to do this and not community spirited. Some of us local folk will fight to get the bowling club up and running with new members.... and if we fail we know we will have tried our hardest to keep a community service for an important sector of the community that has been a big part of GP since the thirties - almost 100 years and whom Hounslow Planners agreed was worth keeping.5    Like    · Reply · 1d · EditedEvelyn Rose LondonEvelyn Rose London I remember the head of the CIC promising us the Bowles club would always be safe....sadly Guy Lambert the CIC for me are destroying the strong community spirit that exists also our wellbeing is being discarded. Also the introduction of parking charges will impact families on benefits and or low income. When is a park not a park ? When the CIC lease it out all summer.

N V Brooks ● 1848d

There. I copied and pasted what I wrote (as anyone else could have done)The CIC is a not for profit company - any income is put back into maintaining or improving the park and its facilities. As I understand it the bowls club has been wound up by the members/committee. I'm told it had 22 members of whom 12 were active. They maintained the green themselves with some help from Capel Manor and their lease called for them to maintain the clubhouse, however the CIC stepped in to do so at times at a cost of around £2K per annum. The club were encouraged to grow membership but this was not achieved. As I understand it they believed that membership would grow after the delayed sports hub was completed but the development is many months late. At present, the state of the bowling green is poor (I took this picture a couple of weeks ago), access is restricted because of the continuing works to the sports hub building and sports fields, there would have to be a deep clean of the clubhouse and facilities for COVID, there is no remaining club and the equipment to maintain the green has been sold. Most of the bowlers have either moved on to other clubs (there's one in Ealing Borough within a mile I think) or retired and it's not clear there would be anyone to fix the green even if equipment could be sourced. The CIC is supposed to grow use of the park and the proposed pitch and putt course (currently not happening) was mooted to attract 30,000 players per year. I have gleaned this from correspondence and telephone calls with the CIC management and some of the trustees, and one of the former club members. As far a I can see everybody has accepted, albeit with regrets, that the club cannot be revived

Guy Lambert ● 1848d