Culcheth Tennis Club - LED Lights & Rejuvenation

Who are we?

Culcheth Tennis Club is a part of the larger sports, community and events club,  The Daten,  which has one of the biggest facilities of its type in the North West of England. The club offers a wide range of sports and leisure opportunities together with a large bar and the Sunflower cafe.

We welcome everyone to the Club whatever their ability or age - we pride ourselves on meeting the needs of all members, from those playing just for fun and fitness, to those wanting to compete in leagues. We offer a range of coaching which is advertised locally and everyone in the community is welcome to take part! 

Why are we crowdfunding?

We are so proud of what we can offer as a small club, however, we are seeking funding for new LED floodlights to replace our current floodlights which can often be unreliable and then become costly to repair. This year alone, we have had to fund the replacement of seven bulbs - they aren't easy to replace!  In addition to improving the Club facilities, these floodlights would also make a significant decrease to our recurring energy bills and help the Club become more sustainable!

As part of our upgrade programme, we also wish to install a premium technology gate that will allow access to our courts through our booking system. This will allow us to open our courts for non-member community use to encourage  pay-as-you-play options which would open up more opportunities for social play within our wider community.

We are sadly experiencing difficulties with using our courts during the Autumn and Winter months due to their poor condition and they are in need of rejuvenation. A group of enthusiastic volunteers have recently attempted to clean the surface ourselves with limited success and are now looking for help in allowing them to be cleaned professionally to enable us to continue our activities. We hope to be able to organise a deep clean in March which will enable the surfaces to be used consistently throughout the year for the next three years. This will allow us time to address having a new multi-court surface laid, so that our plans for the expansion of their use can be implemented further.

How we’ll spend the money raised

Culcheth Tennis Club is a small club and the money raised from membership fees only covers the day to day maintenance with a small amount left over for project work. Therefore, we are endeavouring to raise the money we need through crowdfunding.

We are rejuvenating the court surfaces on all 4 courts to enable safe play and future prosperity of our club: Estimated costs: £12,000 plus VAT

We will upgrade to new LED floodlights to replace our current floodlights which can often be unreliable and then become costly to repair. : Estimated costs: £26,000 plus VAT

We will add a premium technology access gate to enter our courts: Estimated costs: £6,500 plus VAT

Community impact

Culcheth Tennis Club reaches many parts of the local community through coaching, club sessions and social events. Culcheth Tennis Club has worked alongside several local schools for a number of years and improvements in our facilities would allow children from these schools to be able to attend coaching at the Club itself at a more reasonable price due to the decreased energy cost. 

The facilities are used by several different community groups within the Daten including tennis, a junior football coaching academy, Active Soccer,  and the Warrington Ukraine Hub. By upgrading our facilities, we also aim to increase the use of the courts by non-members by installing a coded gate which will interact with our new LED lighting system and allow our local  community to benefit from using them.

The improved surfaces and floodlights would also allow us to extend playing hours into the evening, creating more opportunities for individuals to participate, particularly throughout the winter months when the coaching and club sessions start when the natural light has already been lost. The club sessions are attended by all parts of the community, from junior members through to our retired members.

Thank you for reading and we hope you are able to help us reach our target!

How you can play your part

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!

4. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!