Locker Rewards

Aim: Love swimming at Faversham Pools? Then, you are going to LOVE these rewards!

Faversham Pools 

We are a registered charity and multi-pool complex in the heart of Faversham's town centre offering year-round swimming; committed to supporting our community to improve physical, mental, and emotional health and wellbeing, as well as safety, through swimming and education opportunities. We are the only outdoor pool in Kent to open year-round for family swimming in the summer, cold-water swimming through the winter and are the last remaining outdoor pool in the UK with 1m, 3m and 5m diving boards.  Our Pools provide a unique and invaluable service to the local area by providing training and employment opportunities and increasing footfall for other local businesses. The Pools are one of Faversham’s biggest tourist attractions with almost 250,000 admissions annually.  

The Project 

Our current lockers are over 17 years old, having remained in place for longer than expected for this type of item. As a result, they have become worn due to the chlorinated and damp environment of a swimming pool, and many are broken. The age of the lockers mean that they are not accessible for swimmers with visual and physical impairments.   

While the direct decline of the lockers is due to their age, the impact of Covid has further exacerbated their deterioration.

During the course of the pandemic

• The Pools were only able to open for a total of 60 days
• We were unable to carry out the necessary maintenance to preserve and prolong the lockers. 
• The moist atmosphere and minimal air circulation has led to corrosion meaning more of a third of them are completely out of use and many more need constant repair. 
• The existing lockers are not disability-friendly, or accessible to swimmers with visual or physical impairments. 
• Many of them are small meaning some people will have to use several lockers at a time which exacerbates the locker problem by increasing the already limited number of lockers available to swimmers.  

The replacement lockers will be at an accessible height to assist elderly swimmers and those with mobility issues, one bank of lockers will have automatic fobs to make it easier for swimmers who are unable to operate a token slot due to mobility issues, lockers will include braille tags and signage for swimmers with a visual impairment and we plan on having fewer smaller lockers to increase provision and reduce congestion which comes from people looking for a working locker, especially on busy days.  

In 2022, we conducted a customer survey to reconnect with our users following the pandemic, many of which requested various modifications to the facilities.  It came as no surprise that new lockers were high on the recommendations list. 

We identified that a major barrier to enjoying our facilities are the unreliable lockers, the congestion in the changing area on busy days caused by people trying to find a working locker and the lack of accessibility for disabled and elderly swimmers.

Where we are now...

• The cost to replace the lockers is £41,300 
• To date we have secured £32,900 in grants from local grant making bodies and councillors. 
• Since January 2023, we have been Crowdfunding and fundraising on-site to help us reach our final target.
• We can now announce we have successfully secured £37,960 in total. 

In February, half of the new lockers were installed and the feedback we have had since then is incredible. We are now in a position where we are SO close to being able to fully replace all lockers but, we need to raise the remaining £3,470.

While we would love to be able to make up this shortfall ourselves, we are unable to as we need to protect operational funds which were significantly impacted by the pandemic; caused by 

• the Pools having to close and then restrict admissions. The prolonged closures had a severe impact on some of our plant and technical equipment and we had to make critical investment using our reserves to prevent our closure. 
• One of our main priorities going forward is to stabilise our operational model post covid despite now being faced with the cost-of-living crisis and the effect this is having on our increasing running and energy costs and, the families within our community
• . We have taken steps in securing external funding to help us reduce our energy costs and consumption and, to ensure we can continue to deliver our charitable mission of providing affordable swimming facilities for our local community. 

Adding further pressures to our depleted operational funds was a recent announcement that we are at risk of our annual grant  from our local authority being cut from £100k-£80k, again putting further pressure on our financial resources. We are now faced with the possibility of us having to make the £20k short fall which ultimately leaves less money to spend on improvements which are desperately needed to secure our longer term future. 

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/favershampools-1

So... our fundraising mission continues, and we hope to replace ALL lockers in time for the busy summer period. 

This is where Crowdfunder rewards come in...

As one last push, we are offering rewards in return for a donation. 

There is a mixture of in-house rewards and some that have been kindly donated by local businesses. 

Any money raised through the rewards will be added directly to our locker fundraising pot. 

Shortly after claiming a reward you will receive a message with information on how to redeem it. 

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your ongoing support. 

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. If you want to run your own fundraiser to support us, 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!