The Scottish Football Partnership Trust was delighted to award funding to Dalkeith Thistle Community Football Club, a fast growing grassroots club from the Scottish FA South East region.
For a number of years, the club faced a dilemma as they had no showering facilities or hot running water in the toilets. The club’s Cowden Pavilion was constructed in 1991 and it was becoming apparent that the showering and heating system would soon be obsolete and in order to have functioning showers and hot water, a full new system would require to be installed. The facility has two large changing rooms and two small official changing rooms which the club recently refurbished. They currently have seven senior teams which play on a Saturday afternoon and a full complement of mini/junior teams from Under-7 to Under-16 teams that play on Sunday mornings. Ann Phillips, the club’s Secretary commented on the award by saying “The completed project will not only allow our members and officials the opportunity to have a shower after a game but due to the installation of new boilers, it will enable us to have hot running water in the toilets. The environmental upgrade of the boilers to a more energy efficient system will bring significant savings to the annual energy bill – we anticipated that we will be able to save 20-30% on energy costs for the club per annum and these savings will be re-invested into the club to encourage member growth. Dalkeith Thistle Community Football Club is a progressive community focused club which strives to provide the best facilities for the local community and surrounding areas. The costs of carrying out this work were very prohibitive but with the support and funding from The Scottish Football Partnership Trust, we were able to complete this work and now have showering facilities which we can offer to our members and officials.”
