Swindon Bats

14/12/2025

Merry Christmas to our wonderful volunteers and committed committee members.

We are so thankful for everything you do 💓

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BjfbjKw6x/

13/12/2025

Our Brilliant Andy and Stu! 🦇

Big thanks to British Blind Sport Tenpin and The Primary Club for everything you do to help us play accessible Sports at national and competitive levels. We couldn't do any of this without you!🏆🎳

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06/12/2025

Thank you to everybody who came down to say hello at the Christmas craft fair today. We had a lovely time and feel very festive 🎄 🦇
Here are some lovely photos from the day

05/12/2025

Stuck for something to do this weekend?
Why not come along to the Christmas craft fair at Swindon hub in the town centre?
Some of our very talented. Bats members have been getting crafty and will be selling all the wonderful creations. From candles to coasters to blankets, we’ve got everything.
Hope to see you there between 10 and 4! 🦇 🎄

24/11/2025

Have you gotten into the Christmas spirit yet?
We certainly have after today. Today saw our Christmas challenge with.

Zurich Community Trust Where we had a Bats versus Zürich kurling match. Christmas music was playing, mince pies and mulled wine was being enjoyed by all and some excellent scores all round.
Zürich snatched the victory this year, so a big well done goes out to them. We look forward to having another challenge with them soon. 🎄 🦇

23/11/2025

This is a really important story.

When someone starts to lose their sight to the point that mobility becomes a struggle there should always be a local service available for Orientation Training and Rehabilitation support.

Having to wait up to a year to use a cane is absolutely appalling!
No one should have to live with such uncertainty or isolation.

Orientation training can change lives and should be a priority for all those who need it with a Visual Impairment.

You can help the RNIB bring this important issue to the Governments attention by signing their petition below and demanding changes:

https://change.rnib.org.uk/page/176328/petition/1?ea.tracking.id=OS&fbclid=IwdGRjcAOPLopjbGNrA48ug2V4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHqq7fE6LIm6ihUY8m4T2SGQY-7OFDCWKknH6k1JBWIefU_KP4puTsqj3iJlm_aem_cBNLScAL-BxoGku78VwI0g

A man with a rare retina condition says he is disappointed with the support available to him.

22/11/2025

If you're out and about today doing a bit of Christmas Shopping do stop and say hello to our fantastic Volunteers manning the Swindon Bats Charity Bucket Collection Stall at West Swindon Asda! Come and meet our fantastic visually impaired members, grab a sticker or a chocolate for your little people and if you're lucky this morning you may even get a chance to see The Batman himself! 🦇

21/11/2025

Our Bats members have been busy crafting away for our stall at Swindon Hub on Saturday the 6th of December!

If you're out and about doing your Christmas shopping, why not pop in and see us for a chat, grab yourself a homemade gift this Christmas while supporting a local Charity and those with Visual Impairments.

❤️🎄🎁🦇

18/11/2025

Some more brilliant news for Swindon Bats this week!

Throughout July and August our Charity was selected as part of Tesco Stronger Starts in partnership with Groundwork 🛒

Through the scheme Tesco's shoppers across all their local Swindon branches were able to place small tokens into three Charity money boxes. The Charity with the most tokens after the alloted time period wins the most money. All three Charities receive funding of either £500, £1000 or the top award of £1500.🤞🏻

Swindon Bats would like to thank everyone for their support and anyone who kindly put a token into our boxes 🦇🪙

Thanks to your support we managed to take the top award of £1500!🏆

We are so grateful to Tesco, Groundworks and all of our fabulous supporters.

This money will go a long way to supporting our members with a Visual Impairment to access the wider community and accessible sports.

Thank you ❤️

Funding is available to other community groups and charities looking to fund local projects that bring benefits to their local communities.

To find out more visit
tescoplc.com/strongerstarts

18/11/2025

Some more fabulous photographs of our brilliant Teams from the British Blind Sport Tenpin Bowling National Competition 🎳

🦇Bats out of Hell (Georgia Houghton, Bill Williams and Sue Mead)

and

🦇Bats Blind Ambition (Stu Neale and Andy Cooper) who bought home the Championship Trophy🏆

16/11/2025

Swindon Bats is very proud of Bats member Sam Willder for standing up and raising awareness of his experience with a local Taxi firm recently.

And we are very pleased to share that Swindon Borough Council has agreed to work with us on making real meaningful changes to how Disabled people access Taxis in the future.

Our Chairperson Becky Harrison, her support worker Bron Edwards , Sam and Bryony had a really productive meeting on Friday with Swindon Borough Council and Heidi Alexander for Swindon South, the minister for transport and MP for Swindon South.

Sam is now waiting for an outcome from Swindon Borough Council on the taxi driver's licence, however, after listening to Sam's story they seemed incredibly empathetic to his experience and although we don't know the outcome yet (The driver has currently been deactivated from Veezu, but currently still holds his licence) I suspect it will be a positive one for Sam and other Guide dog users! They were simply appalled by the treatment that Bryony and Sam endured from the taxi driver in question.

Becky, Sam and Bryony got a Veezu taxi to the meeting on Friday together and we are very pleased to report a much nicer and better experience!

Bats will now be working directly with Swindon Borough Council on a new form that will be available on their website to alert Swindon's taxi licencing department to any potential access refusals and also any potential disability discrimination issues with regards to taxis in the future.

We will also be working with them on a website page with more information about what you should expect from your taxi journey as a disabled passenger.

Sam was fantastic in the meeting and has been so brave to share his story.

Big thank you's to Heidi, the borough council and the BBC for all listening to Sam's lived experience as a visually impaired person and guide dog user but most importantly as a human being who was treated without compassion or care throughout this incident.

❤️🦮🚕

Sam and his guide dog Bryony were treated appallingly while travelling in a taxi in September.

Sworn at by a driver who didn’t want to take a guide dog into the vehicle, Sam was then dropped off in the middle of the road, in an unfamiliar location, in the dark.

Taxis and mini cabs must take guide dogs. It’s not just callous not to – it’s the law.

Thanks to Sam’s courage and resilience in reporting the issue, an investigation is ongoing by the licencing authority (Swindon Borough Council) and the driver no longer driving for Veezu (the mini cab operator), who have since apologised for the terrible treatment Sam endured.

I arranged for Sam to meet with senior representatives of Swindon Borough Council’s Licencing department and I’m really pleased to hear that the council will now be working with Swindon Bats on an ongoing basis and will be initiating improvements to the reporting system, as well as educating drivers on their legal obligations.

Thank you Sam. And lovely to meet Bryony too!

15/11/2025

What a great result for Swindon Bats! 🦇 following a full day of Bowling yesterday, the award ceremony for the summer pairs took place.
Here are the results:
Bats out of hell, Georgia, Sue and Bill, came sixth place in the competition. They also won team handicap knockout. An incredible result.
Bats blind ambition, Andy and Stuart, came first place in their division, they also won the primary club pairs trophy, we are all very impressed!
🎳 🦇