Bowling greens in Oakdale, New Tredegar, Ynysddu, Senghenydd, Machen and Penyrheol could close under council plans to save £100,000.
The six could close over a two year period beginning in 2015.
The proposals were due to be considered at a recent meeting of Caerphilly County Borough Council’s Special Regeneration and Environment Scrutiny Committee but the meeting has now been postponed to July 30.
Ward councillors Margaret Sargent, Steve Skivens and Lindsay Whittle AM are opposing the closure of Penyrheol following representations from the local bowling club, which is due to celebrate its golden anniversary in 2016.
Cllr Sargent said: “Clubs like that of Penyrheol are what keep communities together. It is things on your doorstep that people value most and want to retain.
“Closure would be a devastating blow to the community and the council need to look at alternative ways of saving money. The club does a lot of work with young people in the community which would be lost if it was shut.”
Lindsay Whittle AM, who is also a ward councillor, said: “I remember Penyrheol Park being developed when I was a boy and I’m not prepared to stand by and see the council close it.
“The proposal to shut the bowling green defies logic. The club has a large membership and, importantly, the club holds coaching sessions for local youngsters, as well as new bowlers and has hosted classes from Cwm Ifor school.
“Bowls is very popular across Caerphilly county borough and in 2012 bowls players from across the globe came to Pontllanfraith for the World Indoor Bowls Council Championship.”
The Penyrheol club, established in 1966, is also involved in fundraising for charity and has raised £9,500 over five years for Velindre Hospital.
Aneurin Evans, Chairman of Penyrheol Bowling Club, said he understood the council had to save money but was hopeful the green could be saved.
A spokesman for Caerphilly County Borough Council said: “This is one of a number of savings proposals being put forward as the authority faces unprecedented financial challenges over the coming years. This particular proposal will be discussed by members of the council’s Regeneration and Environment Scrutiny Committee later this month. Those discussions will be fully considered at a future meeting of full council before any decisions are taken.”
Caerphilly Council have been unloading our Community Centres to management committees for years, the council awards a lease and off they go.
Why not use the same process to Bowling greens, users forming themselves into management groups, get awarded a lease, and off they go, or, have the council got some other reason and use for the land and facilities?.
Lindsay is fully aware of the above process so perhaps he could promote it in the council chamber with a view to saving the greens for use by those take this sport very seriously.
Trefor, I will be making the exact points in scrutiny on the 30th July. Leisure centers are also listed for consideration for closure. I will be promoting the transfer of assets that the local authority can’t afford throughout my term as Councillor. I have always advocated it if the community could run it better and more sustainably then the council should let it go.
Allan it appears that what you suggest is a perfect solution in that the Caerphilly Council ( The Ratepayers) retain the ownership of such facilities, and, when the future financial situation improves consideration could be given to see how civic funds could be used to assist in the management of those retained assets, surely, a win win situation????
You mean like they did with the water play park in Aber Valley ?, local community run it with a grant from the council, that’s fine of course until the council pull the plug on the grant and leave you high and dry with no direct funding, as they did with the water play park in my Ward…….
Lyndon: what I am suggesting, and what Councillor Allan Rees appears to be running ahead of me in proposing, is that these facilities are made into ” stand Alone” assets of the council, i.e. they stand alone in respect to ratepayers money to prop them up, they survive on fees they charge members and others to use the facilities, they use those funds to maintain the greens and other facilities which may be attached to them, or, at least that is what I am suggesting.
If they cannot do that, and cannot maintain a position whereby they survive without Council funds for ever being injected there is no point in going down the road I have suggested.
With regard to your facilities I suppose they are not such that fees and charges could be made for thier use, in fact, such amenities appear to me not suitable for such a move and should be totally funded as a local amenity.
If financially they could be sustained without public funding then there could be options, but the reality is many of these facilities require some form of subsidy or full funding to function….otherwise they would not be there in the first instance and council funded,, my main concern is even when the “will” is there for community’s to run them that without on-going support many would not be viable, and lets not forget many people campaigned for years for some of these facilities to be introduced in the first place…
You are right in everything you state, it always appears to me that when Caerphilly Council need to make cut backs it is the residents of Caerphilly who lose out, they never get rid of staff to save money. The council are becoming merely a regulatory body who couldn’t run a bath let alone a bowls club, everything can be operated better in private hands.
My idea is that this goes much further than a cabinet and officer decision. It should be cross party and also link into the 3rd and private sector. To create a consortium.
There’s social investment funds of up to £15million available, sport council, lottery and other funding that can also be accessed.
My proposal is that due to the uncertainty that the Williams Commission has placed Caerphilly in, the response from the Welsh Government on it and the need for more cuts next year and the year after that the Leisure facilities strategic plan be halted and we look to save what we have. If there is a merging of authorities, and that looks likely, then we can’t be certain that any new authority will be able to or politically motivated to honor any plans. This also could apply to developments in Bargoed.
My options are:
Option 1: In partnership with the authority a consortium takes a look at every leisure center and bowling green individually, to see what could possibly sustain itself as a community business.
Option 2: As many leisure facilities as possible be taken under the umbrella of a trust and still allowed to operate “autonomously” by being community led through a subsidiary style system . This will ensure flexibility and creativity to ensure sustainability. The trust could even look to adopt any future plans that the council have in mind. This is not unheard of and English authorities have taken similar approaches and succeeded.
Unlike a local authority a trust if big enough and well organized with the right amount of experts will have better and more flexible fund raising powers. It will have access to funding streams the public sector is unable to access. The local authority still would need to be a partner and stakeholder in that, as any trust could operate on the funding the local authority has set aside for leisure as well as any other funding it can draw.
There needs to be radical thinking and I am prepared to back it if I can get the support and help to see if it is really feasible.
In the abervalley, where I grew up. I cannot comment on the full cost of the park, but it probably would rely on the “will” of community as you mentioned below. If I still lived there (possibly if I was Councillor there) I would be advocating fund raising events in the Leigh, Buffs and Windsor etc, a few bands on at £5 a ticket. A dinner for the older people at £5. I would also advocate door to door raffle selling, raffles sold in the shops anywhere you can raise a small amount. Charity boxes on counters and bars. Anything! Even charging just £1 per child per day to use the park, plus selling burgers, ice cream etc on opening days supported by volunteers. I’ve seen the abervalley achieve a lot and I was dismayed that it wasn’t even attempted.
http://www.blackwoodlabour.org.uk
Allan what nonsense are you talking about ?, the fund raising aspects you talk about are on-going and have been for while, (n fact there a another fund raiser the end of the month) you say “I was dismayed that it wasn’t even attempted” , well your wrong, the community has come together, and the point i was making was, be careful if your reliant on grant funding that the council promise (as a sweeter) to take over the running, as they can easily “pull the plug” on the funding, which was the situation in the Aber Valley….
Sorry Lyndon, if that’s the case then I retract what I said on “the wasn’t even attempted comment.” I haven’t heard though! This is good news, and if there is a place where I can make a donation then I gladly will as my daughters will use that water park when they visit their nans. Will it be open this summer hols? If so publicize it as it will be a great achievement. I shall flag my own comment as inappropriate!
Ditch the 6.9 million cinema and bowls centres won’t need to close, public toilets can be ‘re-opened, no charges for penyfan pond et al, community cafes can stay open.
What is going to happen to the larch trees that are coming down up cwmcarn scenic drive will the logs be sold in Blackwood market to raise money for the council to pay the suspended three in the pay fiasco?
Caerphilly can find money for that?????
My response to below: My idea is that this goes much further than a cabinet and officer
decision. It should be cross party and also link into the 3rd and
private sector. To create a consortium.
There’s social
investment funds of up to £15million available, sport council, lottery
and other funding that can also be accessed.
My proposal is that
due to the uncertainty that the Williams Commission has placed
Caerphilly in, the response from the Welsh Government on it and the need
for more cuts next year and the year after that the Leisure facilities
strategic plan be halted and we look to save what we have. If there is a
merging of authorities, and that looks likely, then we can’t be certain
that any new authority will be able to or politically motivated to
honor any plans. This also could apply to developments in Bargoed.
My options are:
Option
1: In partnership with the authority a consortium takes a look at every
leisure center and bowling green individually, to see what could
possibly sustain itself as a community business.
Option 2: As many
leisure facilities as possible be taken under the umbrella of a trust
and still allowed to operate “autonomously” by being community led
through a subsidiary style system . This will ensure flexibility and
creativity to ensure sustainability. The trust could even look to adopt
any future plans that the council have in mind. This is not unheard of
and English authorities have taken similar approaches and succeeded.
Unlike
a local authority a trust if big enough and well organized with the
right amount of experts will have better and more flexible fund raising
powers. It will have access to funding streams the public sector is
unable to access. The local authority still would need to be a partner
and stakeholder in that, as any trust could operate on the funding the
local authority has set aside for leisure as well as any other funding
it can draw.
There needs to be radical thinking and I am
prepared to back it if I can get the support and help to see if it is
really feasible.
http://www.blackwoodlabour.org.uk
THIS IS IMPORTANT:
Agenda for the meeting and Appendix
From: Lynne Hughes-Williams
Caerphilly
11 Jul 2014 — As some of you may be aware, the bases for the parking meetings have been installed at Penallta Parc and Pen Y Fan, that I am aware of to date. Despite the meeting being on the 16 July 2014.
The agenda for the meeting and the appendix referred to therein can be found on the Caerphilly County Borough website.
If you would like me to send copies by e-mail, please send me an e-mail to lhwpersonal@icloud.com.
In the meantime, I am considering the best course of action to deal with the lack of respect that the Council have shown by installing the payment machines ahead of the meeting on Wednesday. I will be demanding an explanation.
My view is that the report writer has made a clear assumption that the Cabinet members will approve the recommendation to proceed with implementing the charges at the meeting despite our objections.
https://www.assemblywales.org/epetition-list-of-signatories.htm?pet_id=1031
Untill we end Fractional Reserve Banking and Fiat currency we will be indebted to a system that makes the rich banking cartels richer and the honest good man of the street poorer.
We are seeing the destruction of the middle class in this country and when you get a system were there is a poor class and a super rich class you get whats called neo-feudalism.
The banking cartels are private banks that make up the central banks of a nation like the Bank of England or Federal Reserve in the USA.
The private banks print money out of thin air and lend it to governments with a compounded interest.
Who pays that interest? Us the people of tue UK. The interest increases daily; they call it our “debt” and we pay for it through austerity, cutbacks and increased taxes; that will only get worse.
Our apathy to this fact is the route cause to many of our economic problems.
You can find this guy on channel 512 via sky.
In my opinion he calls it exactly as it is.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn_x_SNH5UE
One of the most informative documentaries you will see about how the financial collapes happend and the consequence of deregulation of the banks.
Inside job, narrated by the actor Matt Damon.
http://vimeo.com/27292661
what are we paying council tax for, police we neversee, boling greens you want to sut along with leisure centres, bins they now collect every two weeks and they want to make it three weeks. all well and good making cuts so start making cuts in our council tax if we having less for our money