Long Sutton Hockey Club setback in fundraising effort

Long Sutton Hockey Club has suffered its first setback in raising cash for a £140,000 upgrade of its pitch and floodlights.

After finding out that it was successful in a bid for a £30,000 grant from the National Hockey Foundation for a new all-weather pitch and floodlight improvement, the club has been turned down for a £15,000 cash injection from Lincolnshire County Council.

The decision was blamed on the high number of applications for the council’s Community Facilities Grant Aid funding, but hockey club officials are still hopeful of funding from Sport England and other grants totalling £72,000.

Peter Worth, director of Long Sutton Community Sports Association, said: “We are obviously disappointed not to receive the grant from Lincolnshire County Council.

“But I do understand that there is only a limited amount of money that can be awarded to community projects.

“The community sports association will continue to move forward in looking at all other avenues in order to obtain the funding necessary for this project.”

We will continue to move forward in looking at all other avenues in order to obtain the funding necessary for this project

Both the hockey club and association have built up a “sinking fund” over a number of years for improvements to its facilities and it currently stands at almost £20,000.

Wendy Moore, funding and community grants officer at Lincolnshire County Council, said: “This year, the council made more than £280,000 available to community projects.

“However, we received applications totalling more than double that amount and, inevitably, that meant there were some projects we were unable to support financially.”

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