Sport England - Movement Fund has provided £7,500 of match funding
New Rink Lighting to Cut Cost and Carbon Footprint
Swanley, Kent, United Kingdom
Aim
Our aim is to reduce our carbon footprint and cost. The system uses 15kw per hr and by changing to LED lights this will reduce to 4kw per hr
Who are we?
We are an indoor bowls club for all ages and capabilities and offer a range of activities and facilities to the community.
The club offers a meeting place through the game of bowls to allow people to meet and make new friends and of course not to feel lonely.
We have 480 members consisting of 330 playing members, who enjoy an active programme with National and County competitions, Kent Invicta Triples leagues, Internal Leagues and competitions with visits from other clubs, short mat bowls players, visually impaired and advantaged there are also 150 Social members that use the premises for lunch time meetings, quiz nights and bingo evenings.
We have two reception rooms where we can cater for 75 and in the other 45 for weddings, black tie dinners, parties, meetings and receptions.
The club is managed by a board of four directors plus a bowls committee at present we have two employed members of staff.
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Why are we crowdfunding?
The bowls hall has 140 fluorescent lights to illuminate it. Fluorescent tubes only have a certain length of usable life and the type we have are no longer manufactured and they cannot be changed piecemeal and in addition the existing lights burn 15.8kw per hour of electricity. To change to LED strip lights will use 4.42kw per hour this should reduce our electrical costs approximately by 50 to 60%. We asked a NIEIC Electrical Contractor to provide us with a scheme and cost to undertake the project that amounted to £18,600.00 inc. VAT. Like most clubs this was beyond our financial capabilities so we turned to Sport England for help and they offered us a conditional award of £7,500.00.
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How we’ll spend the money raised
The money will be spent in one lump sum to a qualified electrical contractor who will exchange the fittings one row at a time to enable us to keep half the rink open for use.
The rink carpet has to be protected from damage and can only be walked on smooth sole shoes and it is vacuumed twice a week. The contractor will have to cover his area of working with dust sheets and topped with plywood sheets before erecting a mobile tower to gain access to exchange the fittings.
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Community impact
We have 480 members as explained earlier but allow the premises to be used by other organisations Girl Guides, Weight Watchers, Bexley Fly Fishers Short mat bowling, and Curling meet at various times during the month in adjoining rooms.
We have an arrangement with two Residential Care Homes to bring residents to play bowls according to their ability. The Charlton Athletic Community Trust has a regular booking for Bowls Tasters and we provide their group with lunch.
In addition we have arrangements with four outdoor bowls clubs to keep their members together during the winter use the rinks for their own programme.
In a month there is in the region of 2500 users of the facilities.
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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. Make a donation, Purchase a bond or if your member pay your fees earlier.
2. Spread the word. Tell your relations about us, Tell your friends, Tell other organisations about us and point them to our website to see for them selves what a benefit we are to the community.
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. Why not a sponsored afternoon tea, a sponsored bowls match, make the sandwiches for a match.
This project successfully funded on 10th October 2025