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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Jonathan Geddes

Lanarkshire tennis club 'hugely disappointed' as covered courts plan is scrapped

Ambitious plans by a Lanarkshire tennis club to build a new covered courts facility in the area have been scrapped.

Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Club had hoped to turn part of Overtoun Park into new playing premises that they said would also serve as a community hub, with room for other games and a cafe.

The proposals were met with a mixed reaction from locals.

Earlier this year Lanarkshire Live told how the plans looked to have fallen through after a funding bid to Tennis Scotland and Sportscotland was rejected.

Club representatives recently had a face to face meeting with the organisations, and as a result have now confirmed the entire plans have been ditched completely, saying they were "hugely disappointed" at the news.

The club had been working on the project for several years.

In a statement the club said: "It is with great sadness and huge disappointment that we announce that our dream of building some covered tennis courts in Overtoun Park as part of a vibrant community hub seem well and truly over.

Some locals were unhappy about the proposed plans (RGR)

"Without TSIT funding this is not achievable.

"We tried our best to deliver a project that we believe would have been transformational for our local community and would have been transformational for the growth of tennis in Scotland by bursting through the preconceived limitations of what a tennis club is supposed to do...

"Our members and volunteers have given tirelessly to raise awareness and funds through a wide range of activities showing total commitment to our cause and through the efforts of this huge group of people we have created huge excitement and positivity for our plans within the local community.

"This is all now in vain."

Club members took part in various fundraising tasks for the project, such as this charity cycle to Wimbledon (Peter Mulholland)

The proposals would have seen pay as you play all weather courts built at the park, with a cafe also placed onsite that the club claimed would become a local hub of activity.

However, Lanarkshire Live previously told how more than 100 people had joined a Facebook group to protest the plans, as they wanted the greenspace to be used for a wider range of sports instead.

In a letter to the club for the LTA, Sportscotland and Tennis Scotland, the organisations cite the location as being a key reason for the rejection, as it feel Rutherglen is already well served for tennis.

They state: "There were areas of concern identified during our review of your proposal, most notably in relation to location and financial and operational viability.

"The proposed site is not located within an identified TSIT strategic priority area, which takes into account insight on population, participation, travel, demographic information as well as existing and potential operator analysis.

"Whilst we recognise the proposal is at an early stage, our priority is to invest in proposals that are located in areas where there is a high level of unmet tennis demand and a lack of accessible indoor tennis provision.

"For now, our priority is to continue to use this analysis based approach to better understand the most appropriate locations to develop an indoor tennis centre within the strategic priority areas identified by us."

Six other projects across Scotland are believed to have secured funding instead.

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