Somewhat unfairly (the actual median age of residents is 45) the East Sussex coastal resort of Eastbourne is known as ‘God’s waiting room’ because of the high number of old people who live in Britain’s sunniest town.
Although Eastbourne’s reputation as a paradise for retirees may be overblown, it can’t be denied that the town is quieter and more sedate than the raucous youth culture pervading its coastal neighbours Brighton and Hastings. And now, according to the Times, Eastbourne’s elderly people are facing a new threat to their health and happiness alongside the inevitable aches and pains that accompany the autumn of life: their bowling club may have to close.
The historic seafront Parade Bowls Club is facing an astronomical 2,000 per cent increase in fees for its council-owned car park from £40 a year to £840 – a massive hike that the club calls ‘catastrophic’, and which it says it just cannot afford to pay. Club captain Peter Hensman described the proposed hike as ‘morally wrong’ and told the Times that it would be unaffordable for many members and force them to quit and the club to close.
Bowls, like Pétanque in France, is more than a game for those not in the first flush of youth. The gentle game is also part and parcel of English culture and history. The legend that Sir Francis Drake insisted on finishing his game of bowls in Plymouth before taking on the Spanish Armada sums up the supposed British qualities of unflappable calm and resilience.
For its 70 members, the Parade club in Eastbourne represents more than a hobby: the gentle sport of bowling is their entire way of life and the club is the place where they meet their friends to socialise. One bowler the Times spoke to, 94-year-old Tom Spencer, has been bowling for 30 years, and says that since the death of his wife four years ago, the club has become the centre of his existence. Reaching the club without a car would mean two bus journeys for Tom, an impossibility at his age, he says, as he could not manage to carry his ‘woods’ (bowls) along with him.
Financial pressures on local government are at their most intense in living memory
A spokesman for Eastbourne Borough Council says they have been subsidising the car park for years, but financial pressures for local government are at their most intense in living memory, and the cash-strapped authority needs to find new ways to make up the shortfall. It may spell the end of the club which has been bowling along on the seafront since it opened in 1904.
Ten years ago this spring I was busy fighting the 2015 general election in Eastbourne as Ukip’s parliamentary candidate, and I made the concerns of the town’s elderly one of my major campaign issues. At that time there was a possibility that Eastbourne General Hospital would close, and I made a public pledge that if elected I would donate one quarter of my parliamentary salary towards keeping it open and other local charitable causes. I challenged my rivals to do the same: none did.
Much good my theoretical generosity did me! On polling day, although coming third in a field of six and beating Labour, the Greens, and an independent, I was trounced by both the sitting Lib Dem MP Stephen Lloyd, and by the Tory Caroline Ansell who took the seat from Lloyd with a wafer thin majority. (In 2017 she was defeated, but came back in 2019, only to be beaten again at last year‘s election when the town reverted to the Lib Dems.)
Were I to be a candidate in Eastbourne today the growing plight of the elderly would again be at the forefront of my campaign, and I would be fighting for the survival of the bowls club. Not all old people in Eastbourne are wealthy retirees sitting in the sunshine on index-linked private pensions. Many have just survived a chilly winter without their winter fuel subsidy that was suddenly withdrawn by the incoming Labour government, and are facing rocketing rises in their rents, energy and food bills. Even in sunny prosperous Eastbourne, life for many has become a grim struggle for survival.
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