RINGWOOD Town have been awarded funding for a new LED floodlight project at their Long Lane ground.

The £20,000 grant from the Premier League comes as part of the Football Stadia Improvement Fund (FSIF), a sister organisation of the Football Foundation.

Wessex One outfit Ringwood will use the money to replace their existing floodlights, which have been in place for over 20 years.

The contract was awarded to Lymington-based Lights4Sport by EcoClub following a competitive tendering process involving eight suppliers.

Ringwood Town runs 27 teams from under-6s to the Wessex League side and is an integral part of the local community with 350 players supported by 50 managers and coaches.

Phil King, Ringwood chairman, said: "This is fantastic news after a very competitive tendering process. Huge thanks to the FSIF for their funding to which the club has significantly topped-up.

"It’s a big step forward for us. Our existing lights have served the club well for more than 20 years but now they’ve fallen behind ground grading standards and are beyond economic repair.

"LED technology has become more affordable and I’m sure will serve us well now and for the long term plans we have for the club. I can’t wait to get them installed!”

Martin Roche, director of Lights4Sport, added: “Our class-leading LED sports floodlights come complete with our integral SPORTcontrol phone app to not only switch the lights on and off, but to save even more energy by dimming lights for training, third/half pitch lit only and individual lamp control and power monitoring

"We look forward to Ringwood Town FC’s many teams benefitting from high quality LED lighting."