Please see below the following statement that has been issued this week by Sport England.

“A decision was made at the beginning of the Small Grants programme to support small bowls clubs to purchase essential ground maintenance equipment if a financial and operational need could be justified.

Our policy has always stated that we ‘do not fund the maintenance or replacement of existing equipment’ and due to the popularity of the Small Grants programme and the competition for funding it is highly unlikely that we will fund projects of this nature in the future.

This means that an application for any equipment that is like for like replacement is outside of policy because it is simply meeting an existing running cost and will not be able to deliver any additional output for the investment.

Examples of projects we won’t fund:

• A mower/roller to replace an old one where no additional sporting delivery will take place.

• Replacement watering and irrigation systems

Example of projects we may fund:

• A new mower/roller to cope with additional use, for example, on a new green or to enable the club to hold additional games.

• A club that has not previously owned equipment (mower, roller, irrigation system etc) i.e. it is a new start-up or equipment has previously been hired.

• A new electronic mat handling unit – this could be seen as replacement equipment if the club already has a manual one, however the viewpoint at the moment is that these units are often required to allow sessions to take place if all the members are of an age and ability that makes it very difficult to use manual systems. These projects will continue to be a low priority however, unless the applicant can show that the new unit will allow the members to run extra sessions - due to outside help not being required – and increase participation.”

 For more information on the Sport England Small Grants Scheme please go to: http://www.sportengland.org/funding/small_grants.aspx