New floodlights at Burn Road pitch signify brighter era for Milton Rovers

Grants of £30,000 from The Levenseat Trust and £19,500 from The Renewable Energy Fund – supplemented by around £18,000 raised by Rovers representatives – funded the project’s much-awaited completion and training and games have been taking place there in recent weeks.

"It’s taken many years to get this to fruition through planning applications,” Milton Rovers chairman Billy Stewart told the Carluke and Lanark Gazette. "When we had that donewe had to find the finance to do it.

“Up until then we’d basically been running with old diesel generators powering some lighting we had that just wasn’t ideal for the kids using it.

"We basically had one set at each corner and there would be two or three lights on each stanchion.

“There were areas of the pitch that the kids were training on that weren’t in darkness, but they were certainly in shadow.

"But the new lights are amazing, there is a world of difference. It’s a fantastic facility that we’ve got. We can use all the space now for training and some of the teams can organise evening friendlies now.

"It’s totally illuminated, it’s safe, it’s good and the wellbeing of the kids is obviously much better. It gives them a pride in the place and a pride in the club.

"We are immensely grateful for the grants.

"Without the help of the two bodies the project wouldn’t have happened.”

The floodlight fitting was done by local contractors Carlin Meek Electrical Ltd and J & A Currie Ltd. Milton also wish to thank PLPC who carried out additional work on the project free of charge.

Rovers have several teams of youngsters born between 2006 and 2016. As the Burn Road pitch is only big enough for nine-a-side games, five older age groups don’t play games there but still use the facility for training.

"Our 11-a-side teams play home games wherever they can get a park,” Stewart added. “Carluke High School, John Cumming Stadium, various grass parks round about. Finding one place for our 11-a-side teams to play would be a utopia.”