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Sep 26, 2023

Didcot Town chairman says floodlights change has been 'nightmare'

A football club chairman has described trying to change their stadium's

A football club chairman has described trying to change their stadium's floodlights as a "nightmare".

Didcot Town had hoped to reduce their energy bills by replacing their halogen lights at the Loop Meadow stadium with LED ones ordered from China.

But the club has had to move their Southern League match against Kempston later to Thame's stadium because of issues setting up the new equipment.

Chairman John Bailey said the problems were having a "huge" financial impact.

Club staff believe they have not got the correct instructions to get the new equipment up and running properly.

Mr Bailey said the club has had problems installing the new lights in a way that provided the required level of light coverage for all areas of the pitch.

"The new LED lights are completely different to the old halogen lights," he said.

"Halogen lights had more spread, whereas the new lights... have more of a straight beam so they need setting up properly - but the company [in China] just don't seem to have given us the right instructions for the boys to do it."

He said the club usually get 200-250 supporters attending home matches, but that this had dropped to about 80 when they have played at Thame.

"The difference in money is probably well over £1,000 - and it's not just that, it's also our bar takings... it's been a huge impact on us," he said.

"It's a bit of a nightmare to be honest and it's been going on for the best part of two months."

Mr Bailey, who previously called for earlier kick-off times to avoid floodlight costs, said he hoped the problems would finally be resolved over the next week.

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Didcot Town

The Southern League