Support Harehills Bowling Greens for the community

Aim: To raise funds for equipment and training to help us maintain our green space in Harehills Park for future generations.

Leeds City Council confirmed at the start of the year that it was considering a range of money-saving options for municipal greens as part of its efforts to tackle the severe budget pressures being faced by all its services.

One of those options would have seen the number of greens reduced from 61 to 31. Harehills Park has two greens (one for summer and one for winter) and was due to lose both of them.

Now, following a public consultation and backlash the council has drawn up revised proposals that it hopes will allow many more of the city’s greens to stay open however the costs are unaffordable and they want to charge anyone who wants access to these spaces for recreation £90 regardless of however many times they use the space under the proviso of a 'season ticket'. This is a deceitful way to make it appear to be supporting the clubs when in actual fact they know it will crucify the sport in a short time.

We know many families across Leeds but most importantly for us in Harehills and Gipton simply cannot afford such a cost despite being popular not all people can commit to playing in leagues due to busy working lives and childrens bedtime routines and is why mostly those who are retired do play and will be impacted the most. Despite that we are very well attended to all our open days and community events, especially in the school holidays -  so we know people in our community enjoy our space and what we do but the council do not include social/community usage in their statistics. £90 is just unaffordable for a adhoc visit and this is a back handed way to close bowling greens and impacting those with lower incomes the most!

The council state that this is designed to increase participation in the sport by placing an onus on bowling clubs to recruit new players - we know this is what will put people off! £90 is cheap for a years bowling IF you are already partiipating and enjoy the sport but how can we encourage new people who may never play competetively if we are forced to charge £90 after one go it is just not acceptable in any sport and is why we want to take over the maintenance ourselves, where we can charge our own pricing structure, with social memberships from just £5 and bowling member ships from £20. With the support from the community to help us fund equipment and materials such as mowers, verticutters,  grass seed, fertilisers all things we need to maintain our bowling greens this can be possible!

Here at Harehills we host a variety of fun days and have worked tirelessly to bring this space back into the modern times, offering both competetive and recreational bowling opportunities, themed days, fun days, day trips AND we have literally the best bowling green in Leeds with many successful teams over the last 125 years of our existence because of this!

We have supported our community with alternative activities during the cost of living crisis, from being a warm space, with free bowling activities, refreshments and equipment hire, food hampers, food vouchers and accessing data supporting people to get online. More recently accessing the Household Support fund for pensioners who were impacted by the loss of the winter fuel payments.

Crown Greens Bowls is accessible to all people, of all ages and abilities, it is outdoors, in the fresh air and over 70% of bowlers are aged 60 or more, bowls is the ONE sport that has a host of health benefits for players into their 90s! What other sport can boast that a nine year old can complete against a 90 year old with the same chance of winning?

In Leeds we have very strong junior teams and ladies only leagues if you wish, by age 7 it is a good time to start the traditional game but we have bowling activities for toddlers to take part too!

We firmly believe that bowls across Leeds since 1906 has saved the NHS thousands particularly with adult social care and to lose this and many others across Leeds will decimate bowling, our heritage and something we should be proud of in Leeds forever. The negative impact on health could be fatal. Once these spcaes are gone, with trees planted on them they will never be ever replaced.

They are hugely supported assets in the community, public green spaces and now those who play regularly are being scapegoated into paying extortionate costs to keep them going, mostly vulnerable older people and as a city that professes to be age friendly we are just trying to keep our bit for us all in East Leeds.

The council has already committed itself to the continued maintenance of all existing municipal greens until the end of the 2025 summer season. (September 2025) so we are looking to ensure we can take over from October 2025 we need our community that supported us during the consultation to pledge whatever they can afford or come along and join our club, take part, give it a go! You will not be disappointed. Our youngest member is now 7 years old. Our oldest 91 and we have willing volunteers who want to keep these green spaces open, giving countless hours back to the community, any donation to support this will be gratefully recieved.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 13th August 2025 at 12:00pm