INDOOR bowls club members are being offered a temporary home after being told to prepare to leave the Oasis Leisure Centre.

Swindon Oasis Indoor Bowls Club was informed its six-rink facility would be replaced with a gymnasium as part of the centre’s alterations by private developer Moirai Capital Investments.

Swindon Council has now offered to pay about £100,000 to convert an unused warehouse it owns, on Cheney Manor Industrial Estate, into a temporary four-rink indoor bowls facility for three years.

Coun Garry Perkins, Swindon Council’s deputy leader, said this would allow the sport to continue while officers investigated other possible sites and raise the estimated £1.5m for a permanent venue.

Mike Silvester, the committee member who is leading the negotiations with the council, said: “Being an industrial unit, the building isn’t ideal to become a bowls venue.

“But as it’s intended to be a temporary venue for two to three years, it may be acceptable if remodelling work is carried out by the council.

“We haven’t accepted anything yet, as we don’t know the financial implications of taking on the building.There’s still presumably rents to pay on the building and running costs and things like that.

“It may be that the payments the council require would be too much for the club to bear. We don’t know what the figures are at the moment, so we will be asking them.”

Club members particularly want to ensure that Swindon Council continues to control and be responsible for the provision of indoor bowls in the town. They were told about the offer at the annual general meeting of the Swindon Oasis Indoor Bowls Club, at the base of Haydon Wick Bowls Club, off Thames Avenue, on Saturday.

Martin Edwards, the president at Haydon Wick, whose members also use the Oasis, feared the Oasis club’s membership might drop because people did not want to move, or play in a draughty warehouse.

He said: “Membership was really unhappy about what they were proposing to go to, but if they want a club then they’ve got to get on with it.

“It’s the only option.”

Coun Perkins said: “I know there are one or two problems with lighting and heating to look at, but there are also some advantages, because there are offices and meeting rooms within that building, which they don’t have at the moment at the Oasis.

“And probably about 50 car parking spaces could be made available around the building, which would be more than enough.”

He said the question of who would pay for running costs was yet to be discussed and added that the council’s long-term aim was to find a permanent base for indoor bowls.

The local authority was considering an idea, put forward by former mayor Coun Rex Barnett, to extend the Haydon Centre.

He said indoor bowls facilities were used for only six months, but Moirai had to make the Oasis pay all year because the council was withdrawing subsidies.

However, he said the developer had agreed to bring back indoor bowls to the Oasis Centre in the future, if possible.