Chapel Street bowler in sponsored shirt
Hooper, and treasurer, Hilda Uren. Both have proven instrumental in
organising protests to the council and in raising awareness of just how desperate the position is. Yet, since the change of Government, they believe their words have often fallen on deaf ears amongst those in power in the council. “We’d had strong support from Liberal Democrat councillors but, since the local elections, we’ve lost most of these and, subsequently, the backing we had has fallen away,” adds Muriel, who holds special warmth for the club, as it serves as a memorial to her late husband, George. The root of the council’s cuts to bowls lies in the annual costs associated with maintaining a crown green surface, which it estimates to be around £7,000 for the green and a further £5,000 to cover the cost of electricity for the tea hut. Both estimates have left members baffled and they believe the council has simply got its sums wrong. “We’ve done a great deal of local research ourselves into the cost of annual work on a bowling green, and the quotes we’ve attained are nearly half those the council give,” Roy insists. “As far as the electricity is concerned, the council is again way off the mark, with the actual figure for our usage having been quoted at around £400 a year.”
The club believes passionately that they have done all they can to make improvements and cut running costs, but insist members have been met with a less than positive attitude from the town hall. “Four years ago, we were told by Manchester City Council that the much needed work on our tea hut would be
The Bowling Green -p
completed due to safety concerns, but nothing came of it, even at a time when council budgets were healthy,” Hilda recalls. “Now, four years on, the work has been done, but not by the council. We decided to seek out help ourselves.” Both Hilda and Roy managed to get all the repairs and redecoration done on the tea hut and had the electrics fixed, free of charge, by seeking local help. “A Levenshulme GP found us help from some lads completing community service,” reveals Roy. “Once they’d finished the exterior, they came back to start on some interior work and make right a poor job that had been done previously by a council parks contractor.” With such severe cuts to local provision on a national scale, many are starting to believe that the heart of the community is being destroyed, but Chapel Street Bowling Club has not gone yet, and there are those who are fighting the proposals tooth and nail alongside the members to keep the club alive. Chapel Street’s new sponsor, Stockport-based First Step Finance, has been busy taking the cause to the media, standing shoulder to shoulder with Roy, and Hilda and other members in their live protest in Albert Square. When I arranged to meet Roy and Hilda in Chapel Street, the company’s head of public relations, Helen Spivey, travelled from Leeds to meet me on site, and her indignation at the way she believes the council is treating the club is palpable. “We recognise the importance of
preserving community life,” she says, “particularly one with over 100 years’ history, and something that pensioners
pub and green now gone
take comfort, joy and companionship in. Not everything is about money. As a community-focused business, our support goes beyond just sponsorship - First Step Finance pay for club tee-shirts, are providing a new trophy as well as cash. We want to be involved and contribute to local issues and are encouraging local companies and the public to support the Chapel Street bowlers. “We would like to see Manchester City Council reconsider its decision, which we feel will have a truly detrimental affect on the members, who rely heavily on what the club offers them.” Another fierce local advocate of the club is The Blue Bell Inn, which sits in front of the green, and has proved to be one of Chapel Street’s biggest supporters. Following a mission to Manchester brewer, Holt’s, who own and run the pub, Mark Dunn, The Blue Bell’s enthusiastic manager, reports that the brewery has pledged to save the green from destruction, but with one key proviso - that members seek the money for its upkeep from elsewhere. Mark has proven pulling power when it comes to saving leisure resources - he spearheaded a successful protest last year to save the 80-year-old swimming baths across the road from closure. Whilst he cannot promise to deliver similar success for Chapel Street Bowling Club, he is mobilising the forces to mount a defence of what he believes is a “bastion of Britishness”. Pubs and bowling have been bedfellows, especially in the north of England, for longer than most can remember and, in some ways, their respective futures are entwined. As Hilda notes: “They have plenty of bowlers in Barrow-in-Furness, but the
Heaton Moor Park in Stockport -t
the one remaining green ...
... the other is now an open grassed area 45
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