Club News
Greenhead Park Bowling Club have finally received a response from Kirklees Council some weeks after meeting with them on 21 January. This provides an indication of a commitment to provide a greens' maintenance service throughout the 2025 summer bowling season. However that came too late and offered further uncertainty about the long-term future of bowling on the Greenhead Park greens and did not cause the bowling club to rethink on their decision to move to Thorpe Green.
There was no mention of the standard of surface the club could expect which has been a long-standing concern for the club along with no mention of the ongoing costs to the club so they have finalised new arrangements to play at Thorpe Green as reported earlier which they believe offers greater assurance about their long term future.
The response from Kirklees sent to all resident clubs based on park greens across Kirklees was received on Friday 21 February and is copied below.
Dear Club,
Further to our last email dated 18th February, we are now able to provide an update on the coming season. There has not been a decision made on the long-term future of green maintenance and charging, but as soon as we know more, we will communicate this.
While we continue to explore the options, we will be implementing a short-term interim position to allow bowling to continue for the 2025 season on Kirklees greens. This will be utilising the services of a specialist contractor to provide renovation works starting in early March, and ongoing maintenance/cuts throughout the season.
The cutting of greens will be utilising a specialist fine turf ride on mower, with two cuts per week. This operation will require some flexibility from clubs as it will not be possible to cut all greens first thing in the morning and the contractor will need to cut all the greens when they are in the area and will not be able to work to individual fixtures.
We will consider when the greens are played and will aim to work out a schedule that works as best as possible for everyone, but there may need to be a level of flexibility and adjustments made. We would like to encourage all clubs to continue to engage and explore opportunities to create a sustainable future for their greens.
Thank you for your patience on this matter, and hopefully this is welcome news and a level of clarity to allow for fixtures and the season to go ahead.
Mark Ferris, Parks Development Group Leader, Parks & Greenspaces, Kirklees Council
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