As the curtain falls on the Cameron House and Prestonfield Bowling Club, victim of an ageing membership and a pandemic, the Club’s officers have discussed the possible future of the bowling green with representatives of its owners, the City of Edinburgh Council. The Club’s view is that the best interests of the local community would be served by the area of Prestonfield Park currently occupied by the bowling green being converted to allotments. Widespread support has been expressed for this option and given the City’s desire to expand the number of allotments this suggestion was well received. The Club therefore sincerely hopes that by the Spring of 2022 the bowling green will have been transformed into a number of allotments, some of which will be available to local residents.
The covid-19 pandemic, together with declining membership and increased overheads, has resulted in the remaining members of The Cameron House and Prestonfield Bowls Club agreeing to the Club’s dissolution. The bowling green is leased from the City of Edinburgh Council and it is conceivable they may find a new bowling club to take over. However, this seems unlikely. Converting the bowling green area to allotments is the preferred option expressed by the remaining members. If permitted, this would involve community organisation and direct community involvement in raising funds for the conversion.
This photograph of the Cameron House Bowling Club has hung in the Club’s pavilion for many years. But there are no names and no date associated with the photo. The players almost certainly came from the Prestonfield area. If anyone recognises the people in the photo, or can tell us when it was taken, it would be interesting if you could let the Club know. Thanks.
In normal times the Club has its AGM in mid-March followed by the bowling green opening day in mid-April. but these are not normal times. March, April, and the summer of 2020 were severely disrupted by the covid-19 pandemic. Much the same now applies to March and April in 2021. Our usual contact point, Cameron House Community Education Centre, remains closed for the forseeable future.
Any members keen to play, from mid-April 2021 onwards, should contact John Tucker, the President, and he will make the appropriate arrangements, including covid rules compliance. Bowling at Prestonfield remains possible for several months.
The bowling green has operated since 1947, initially controlled directly by the City Council and over the last few decades by the Prestonfield and Cameron House Bowling Club. The Club has now decided on dissolution and will lower he flag in June 2021.
Prestonfield Bowling Green in winter – Now is the winter of our discontent
The Cameron House and Prestonfield Bowling Club is almost certain to close this year. Although efforts at gardening and maintenance work have been made out over the past few months the loss of members and loss of income resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic renders the Club essentially non-viable.
The green is leased from the Council at a peppercorn rent. The Council kindly allowed a one year extension to a twenty year lease originally set to end in November 2020. But with minimum fixed overheads estimated at approximately two thousand pounds per year from November 2021, and potential income of only around eight hundred pounds a year from a small number of remaining members, the Club’s position seems untenable. The situation is exacerbated in that all maintenance and green-keeping is voluntary. The ages of the small number of remaining members makes carrying out this work increasingly impractical.
The question now seems to be whether the Club will be dissolved in June or November, and thinking about what will happen if and when full control is handed back to the Council. It seems unlikely that the bowling green can be leased to another Club. Members of the Prestonfield Club have suggested that in these circumstances the local community might be willing to support the conversion of the area to allotments.
Cameron House and Prestonfield Bowling Club in the years of high memembership
Does Leeds have any relevance for Edinburgh?
Through November and December 2020 there has been a lot of discussion about Leeds City Council’s plan to scrap 31 of the city’s 62 bowling greens. According to the Council’s consultation paper there are 62 greens on 48 separate sites that it manages and 31 of the greens have fewer than 30 members. The Council reckons the annual cost of maintaining each green is about £4,000, a total of £248,000, while income from members’ fees last year was only £43,000. The Council calculates that closing the 31 greens would produce a annual net saving of £83,000 and allow a staff reduction of 4.5 full-time equivalent gardener posts.
Leeds City Council is looking at a £118million shortage in its 2021 budget. It clearly needs to cut expenditure and / or raise more revenue. So in terms of cost-benefit the benefit is £83,000 saved per year.
But the cost side of the argument is in terms of the game’s players. They are generally over-60 and bowling provides them with an opportunity to exercise and socialise. If their green closes then getting to one that remains open could be difficult if they don’t drive, or are no longer allowed to drive. This then is a new threat to the very people who have also been worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic, who have often spent large chunks of 2020 shielding and self-isolating. And these people will surely be even keener to be out enjoying company and the fresh air once the pandemic subsides. Leeds Council have no proposals to dig up football pitches etc. so the bowlers feel they are being picked on at the very time they most need support and a future to look forward to.
So what have any of these dark tidings from Yorkshire got to do with me I hear you ask. Well, first, they bring to light the amazing fact that Leeds has 62 Council-maintained bowling greens while dozens of bowling greens throughout the UK have folded as memberships have declined. The last time I counted there were around six or seven Council-maintained greens left in Edinburgh. The City of Edinburgh Council has already gone through a similar cutting / conversion process to Leeds Council, often by retaining ownership of the land while transferring the running of bowling greens to private clubs. There are around 58 bowling clubs in the Edinburgh area, many leasing their greens from the Council.
Over the last decade the City of Edinburgh Council has converted several of the bowling greens it continued to maintain into tennis courts, petanque courts, allotments, gardens, and housing. Of the greens the Council continues to lease to private clubs The Cameron House and Prestonfield community club is one. And though we’re here for the 2021-2022 bowling season, without new members, and new members willing to help maintain the green, we may not survive very long afterwards. As the saying goes, residents, especially the over-65s, need to use us or lose us, and maybe need to be helped to use us. Otherwise we might as well start thinking about the comparative benefits of petanque (boules) courts, allotments, and housing as compared to a bowling green in Prestonfield Park.
It may be November, with Christmas clearly on the three-household horizon, and a cancelled Hogmanay soon after, but in bowling terms it’s still groundhog day, sorry ground maintenance day.
Since the bizarre covid-19 blighted season ended the President of the Prestonfield Bowling Club has being doing sterling maintenance work with occasional assistance from the Club Treasurer. Leaves from the many surrounding trees have been removed from the playing surface; Roof gutters have been cleaned; Rose bushes have been pruned; A new membrane has been laid along the length of one of the ditches (with all the chip stones on top riddled to remove earth and weeds before being re-laid).
Unfortunately, as with gardening and DIY generally, there are always more matters calling out for attention and with all labour being voluntary and with only a small Club membership to call on there is a constant danger that the work required will exceed the Club’s capacity.
So now that the need for extensive Festive Season preparations may have been reduced, and Club members – or any local Prestonfield people – are therefore now wondering how to fill the short winter daylight hours, here’s an idea. Why not get some exercise in the open air doing something useful for the local community? Contact The Prestonfield Club President. He’ll likely find you a safe, socially distanced job that you can help with.
The outdoor bowling season, made particularly difficult by the covid-19 virus, has now ended.
In normal times the Prestonfield Club members would simply move to the next door community centre and continue playing Short Mat bowls two afternoons each week. Unfortunately, with community centres still closed that option for senior citizens to exercise and socialise is no longer available. While it is possible that the centre may reopen once it is fully compliant with coronavirus rules even then the experience will be very different, as we see from Bowls Scotland guidance.
In 2020 the fear of contracting covid and self-isolation took a serious toll on the Club’s membership subscription income. We hope that by May 2021 things will have taken a turn for the better and we can all be out enjoying the sunshine and exercising on the green again, hopefully with some additional new members.
Meantime, maintenance work is still required as usual, so any volunteer help with re-painting, weeding ditches, cleaning rhones, plumbing repairs, and fund raising would be welcome.
The Cameron House and Prestonfield Bowling Club, like other sports clubs, has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. This was particularly troubling as the Club’s lease on its Prestonfield Park bowling green was due to expire in November 2020 with more expensive terms for lease renewal on offer.
The Club is therefore very grateful that, given the current circumstances, the City of Edinburgh Council has agreed to extend the current lease terms for a further year. The Club looks forward to welcoming a flood of new members, eager to exercise outdoors and hopefully able to properly socialise, when the new season begins in Spring 2021.
As with other City of Edinburgh Community Centres the Cameron House Community Education Centre has been closed since the covid-19 lockdown began in March.
Usually, when the outdoor lawn bowls season ends the members of the Cameron House and Prestonfield Bowling Club (CH&PBC) change to playing Short Mat Bowls in Cameron House. This is run as part of Cameron House’s adult education programme.
It is now mid-September and October signals the end of the outdoor bowls season. Unfortunately, it seems Cameron House will not be re-opening in the near future and CH&PBC members looking forward to playing indoors, in some kind of socially distanced manner, will be disappointed. Like everyone else we can only hope that the pandemic recedes, or a vaccine is discovered, and that restrictions on the use of Community Centres are lifted as soon as it is safe to do so.
Cameron House & Prestonfield Bowling Club 