BOWLERS failed in a last-ditch bid to prevent the cost of their annual season ticket rising by 70 per cent.

The cost of the ticket from Burnley Borough Council will increase from £28.70 to £48.70, and bowlers claim pensioners on fixed incomes will not be able to afford it. But council bosses said that they still paid a considerable subsidy for each bowler every year.

A review of bowling in the borough was launched by the council as it investigated where to make the £1million worth of cuts needed to be made for the next financial year.

It was initially feared that bowling greens were to be axed as the number of bowlers had plunged from more than 1,000 to 460.

But bosses have now secured the immediate future for the 20 greens in the borough.

Gladys Hughes, Burnley Bowls Partnership chairman, told a meeting of the council's executive this week that clubs across Burnley and Padiham had made a number of improvements to facilities. These included extra fencing and benches around the gree-ns and revamps to pavilions where clubs were based.

Mrs Hughes said that the contribution of clubs, in terms of their supervision of bowls facilities, had been estimated at around £32,000 per year.

She questioned whether this had been taken into account when the subsidy issues had been considered.

Mrs Hughes said: "We are concerned about the fall in numbers attending clubs. But many of our members are retired and live on small pensions.

"We hope to be able to restore numbers to what they were five years ago and we are asking the council for help so we can help ourselves."

Council leader Coun Gordon Birtwistle said he had met with bowlers following their concerns about the costs increase. He said he hoped that a compromise had been reached which would safeguard greens but seek to reduce the bowls subsidy.