Update on Castle redevelopment

Dear members,

On Monday 10th August, Graham Hicks and myself met with the Council and Parkwood Leisure to discuss preparations for our return to Spalding. The process required will be for the new building works to be complete, any works in the bowls hall to be complete, a deep clean of the bowls hall area, a deep clean and stretch of the bowls carpet and to move back furniture, lockers, kitchen equipment etc from Long Sutton.

As you can imagine this will be a lot of work and so after we had discussed progress and logistics it was agreed by all parties that we will work towards the date of May 2027. It is likely that there will be no bowls at either Long Sutton or Spalding during this moving process. At present therefore we envisage bowling to recommence at the start of June in Spalding.

In terms of work to take place at Spalding there is still some discussion but the current picture is:

• Replacement LED lighting to an appropriate Lumens level for playing bowls.
• Decoration and spruce up. Parkwood are obtaining quotes for a number of aspects outside of their committed tender and will then need to assess if these extra items can be funded within their budget prior to agreement with the council and ourselves.
• Retention of the kitchen and hatch.
• General agreement to the club applying for an alcohol licence at Spalding as per Long Sutton.
• No objections to retention of the vending machine.
• We also discussed a future need for a new carpet which is included within the new 12-year leisure agency contract. Parkwood Leisure will review this once the new centre is open and operational.It was agreed that the club would produce a bowls development plan and work with the council to look into the prospect of obtaining a grant.

The new agency contract also includes some extended opening hours on some days as per the specification.

Parkwood are also committed to greater exposure for bowls in their marketing as it was agreed that developing the club and increasing membership was of benefit to all.The club will provide Parkwood Leisure with some information for the new centre website to help raise awareness and promote accordingly. We also discussed the prospect of training staff to have an understanding of how to play for dealing with potential new players.

We hope to further develop this spirit of collaboration to further promote the sport of bowls in Spalding.

Best wishes

Kevin Ekins

Men’s President