Bowling clubs in Montrose were given an 11th-hour partial reprieve by Angus Council.
Closure-threatened Hillside, Inch and Melville clubs sent a deputation to a meeting of the local authority’s corporate services committee, expecting to see a massive hike in their rates approved in Forfar.
However, a proposal put forward by councillors has granted the clubs a slender hope for survival, after their representatives spoke of £15,000-a-year maintenance costs being “impossible” for them to pay.
The clubs had existed on antiquated “gentlemen’s agreement” rents at around one-twentieth of what the council now wants them to pay.
Committee convener Alex King said he was “very sorry it had come to this and so very quickly” while regretfully moving to raise rents.
However, Donald Morrison, convener of the neighbourhood services committee with domain over sport and recreation, moved the rates should not come into effect until the next meeting of the full council in two weeks.
In the meantime, he said, he would meet Montrose councillors, club representatives and council officers to thrash out alternatives.
Hillside president Raymond Nicoll spoke of an increase in rents from £800 to £16,000 and said he had “no idea” where the increase in maintenance fees had come from.
Kath Evans of Inch BC said the club had found out about a consultation far too late and it is “impossible for our members to foot the bill” proposed.
Melville representative Hazel Campbell said: “Even if we amalgamated the clubs we couldn’t meet the £15,000. The clubs are an easy target for council cost-cutting. To go from a small price to this proposed price is impossible.”
Montrose member David May said he “believes there is a way forward that meets what we want to do as a council while keeping the clubs open.”
Mr King said the Montrose clubs had “slipped through the net” while others agreed renewed deals with the district and regional councils over time but it was not fair to subsidise them any longer.
Mr Morrison’s amendment gives the affected parties time to figure out how to save bowls in the town. The next meeting of full council is on October 24.