BOWLERS fighting to save their historic green have been dealt another blow after council bosses said they could not guarantee the future of the post of attendant.

Users of the Smith's Recreation bowling green held crisis talks with Preston Borough Council's leisure bosses on Monday in a bid to ensure their survival on the green.

Currently, the green is being vandalised by local yobs to the point where the bowlers have asked for a seven-foot high metal fence to be erected around the pitch.

Council bosses say that is too expensive and are suggesting the bowlers move to another green in Frenchwood, converting their existing one into a five-a-side pitch. That suggestion has outraged the bowlers, many of who are in their seventies.

They hoped Monday's meeting would resolve the crisis, but, claim things are now worse than before.

During the heated meeting, chairman of leisure services committee, Coun Graham Worrell, said there was no guarantee the park attendant, who is currently based near the rec and has also become the target of the vandals, would always be there.

Coun Worrell said: "We cannot guarantee that the attendant at the site will be kept there ad infinitum. Other parks have lost there attendants in the past.

"Bowlers on Waverley Park no longer have an attendant and have carried out the work by themselves."

The bowlers, headed by Coun Mick Moulding, said there was no way they would be evicted. Coun Moulding fumed: "I think it is appalling that the council want to move the pensioners on. They have done nothing wrong, but they are losing out."

Council bosses have also pledged to make the green playable before the start of the new season in a fortnight.

A spokesman for the bowlers said: "We don't seem to be achieving very much. A high fence would keep the vandals out. If we move to a new site, there is no guarantee that pitch wouldn't be vandalised."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.