Club bowled over with improvement work

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Members of an award-winning bowling club held a celebration event today, following a £5,000 makeover.

Stute Bowling Club, which plays at Hallam Fields Ilkeston, now has a new modern kitchen, revamped veranda and a freshly-painted clubhouse main room, thanks to Three Valleys Housing and Connaught Partnership Ltd.

For every million pounds that Three Valleys Housing spends with Connaught, the company gives back one per cent of the value to benefit areas the housing association serves. The bowling club, whose members range from age 10 to 70 plus, made an application to Three Valleys Housing which decides the community projects to benefit from the ‘One in a Million’ scheme.

The club’s president Simon Skelton, who is England's outdoor bowls singles champion, ranked fifth in the world and won a gold medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, led the celebration event, held on Saturday, July 10. He was joined by the deputy mayor Councillor Kevin Miller and representatives from Connaught, Stute Bowls Club, Three Valleys Housing and Bowls England.

Secretary at Stute Bowls Club Terry Simmons said: “The work completed is fantastic. They stripped the kitchen completely, repaired the ceiling, replaced a window, painted the main room as well as completing the work to replace the entire veranda. It’s a place to be proud of now.

“We could not have done it without Three Valleys. The application process was made very easy, and even included a site visit from the committee so they could see what we wanted doing and speak to the club’s members.

“Hopefully it can encourage more members to join and we can continue our-winning streak.”

Connaught’s work with Three Valleys Housing includes the installation of new kitchens and bathrooms, electrical upgrades, rewiring and external re-roofing, as part of the Decent Homes Standard. Since starting to work with Connaught in November 2008, an investment of £4.2million has seen work completed to 2,100 homes.

Phil Brailsford, asset manager at Three Valleys Housing, said: “We are delighted to be able to support this community group and hope it helps add to their trophy haul. We very much believe in investing in communities and helping local people who do their bit, and this One in a Million Scheme is just one part of that.

“Our partnership with Connaught is going well, as proved by the strong customer feedback results, and we look forward to delivering more work over the coming year.”

Connaught operations manager David Hinchley said: “Connaught has continually demonstrated its commitment to making a positive impact within the community throughout the partnership with Three Valleys Housing and we are delighted to see the latest realisation of this. The One in a Million scheme was established with community groups exactly like Stute Bowling Club in mind and we hope they feel the benefit of the donated improvements for many years to come.”

If you think a project could benefit from the One in a Million funding, please email Cathryn Russhard or call her on 0115 9000301.