Facilities & Funding
If your club is planning a facility development or require funding to support an existing project, then please contact your local Development and Coaching Officer or Facilities Support Officer Dave Atkinson dave.atkinson@cheshirecricketboard.co.uk to discuss your needs. Further information about live funding streams, including eligibility criteria and application forms, can be found below.
Our Facilities Strategy
The CCB has recently (2024) completed its County Facilities Strategy (CFS) in partnership with the ECB. The CFS is a ten-year plan which involves engagement with key stakeholders, including, leagues, active partnerships, county pitch advisors and Sport England.
To inform the strategies, the ECB has set out guidelines to ensure that the following facilities are considered throughout the development of the strategies:
- Traditional facilities (pitches, outfields, pavilions, practice areas)
- Non-traditional facilities (multi-use games areas, tapeball/softball spaces, courts/cages)
- Indoor facilities (multi use halls, cricket specific halls, match play venues)
The CFS is to be used to shape investment decisions and priorities for CCB moving forward.
ECB County Grant Fund
The ECB County Grant Fund is now paused for applications in 2024.
If you have a facility project you wish to discuss, please contact our Facilities Support Officer Dave Atkinson dave.atkinson@cheshirecricketboard.co.uk
For further details of the County Grant Fund, including guidance notes, please click here.
HOW TO REDUCE YOUR ENERGY CONSUMPTION
An ECB Energy Guide - make your Club more environmentally sustainable and reduce your operating costs.
More from ECB on energy and water consumption
ECB's Creating Welcoming Environments provides guidance for cricket clubs to help make cricket facilities more inclusive and welcoming to all, by creating better environments for everyone using them and to encourage a more diverse range of people to join cricket clubs and get involved in the game at a recreational level. Club facilities are an important factor in ensuring that everyone, regardless of age, sex, sexual orientation, race, faith or disability, feels comfortable within the club environment.
Sport England
Each year, Sport England invest more than £250 million of National Lottery and public money to help people play sport and take part in physical activity.
Thanks to Sport England funding, a number of Cheshire clubs have been able to develop their facilities for members and guests.
Click here to access the latest information from Sport England including the popular Return to Play: Active Together crowdfunding initiative and the new Places and Spaces fund, both of which can attract pledges of up to £10,000.
Sport England have re-introduced their Small Grants programme, with awards of between £300 and £15,000 available for eligible projects. The scheme aims to help inactive and less active people become more active, and will prioritise projects working with people living in areas of disadvantage (Indices of Multiple Deprivation areas 1 to 3). Further information, including examples of what the scheme can fund, can be found here.
ECB Interest Free Loan & Fundraising
The England and Wales Cricket Trust (EWCT) Interest Free Loan Scheme provides finance to clubs for capital projects to help them build and ensure a sustainable future. Clubs with a junior section can borrow up to £50,000 and adult-only clubs may borrow up to £20,000, subject to certain terms and conditions. To find out more about the scheme or download an application form, please click here.
Fundraising is a vital – and fun – way to generate extra income for your cricket club and fund future development. There are funding schemes in place through the ECB and other sources for capital and smaller projects but clubs must also find additional ways of generating income. This is where fundraising comes in. Discover all you need to know about fundraising to make your club more financially secure on this page, including ideas, tools and resources to set you on your way.
National Lottery & Community Funders
Though not cricket or sport specific, a number of Cheshire clubs have benefitted from financial support courtesy of the National Lottery and other community funders. Click on the links below to access further information about these schemes.
National Lottery Awards for All
Tesco Community Grants
Entrust Landfill Communities Fund
Aviva Community Fund
Arnold Clark
Co-op Locnal Communities Fund
Waitrose Community Matters
Defibrillator Fund - The Club Cricket Charity
In partnership with ECB the Club Cricket Charity provides defibrillators to cricketing organisations across the country.
If you wish to apply for a portable defibrillator then please contact donna.black@club-cricket.co.uk for an application form.
Online Fundraising and Grant Search Engines
Clubs can get free donations from retailers through members online purchases. Have a look at Easyfundraising or Club Together Now. There are also a number of grant search engines clubs can access – these sites are updated periodically and may help you to source funding for your project: