IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
Sun, 28 Jul 2019 00:00
COURT REPLACEMENT
At the heart of any tennis club are their courts and our priority is always to provide first class, well maintained playing surfaces. We have known for some time that courts 1-3 are nearing the end of their life and the Committee is delighted to announce that, at their last meeting, they unanimously agreed to fund their replacement from club reserves. Contractors have been selected and, weather permitting, will commence work w/c October 14th this year.
In addition, we have been offered a significant grant to further improve the club and consequently, at the same time as the courts are replaced, lighting will be installed on courts 1 and 2. Planning permission for the additional lights has already been secured and a new lease from Dacorum Borough Council is in process.
The timing of the court upgrade has been chosen to minimise disruption to play while offering the prospect of reasonable conditions to complete the works. We hope construction will take around 4-5 weeks - again, weather permitting. Painting will go ahead in the Spring once warmer weather arrives and, meanwhile, the black tarmac surface will be painted with temporary markings to enable play through the winter months.
We will still have the use of Courts 4 & 5 during the construction period and social tennis, team play and coaching will be available. The committee will issue guidelines to help manage bookings during that period.
This is the latest of a number of positive changes at the club in the last ten years. We have added a 5th court, a mini-tennis court, relaid court 4, lit courts 3 - 5 and redeveloped the clubhouse. More recently, the addition of a path from the car-park, lowering fencing to improve viewing and the development of the garden area in front of the clubhouse all help to improve the general club environment. Around £120,000 has been invested in expanding and improving the club facilities.
Development has been supported by a number of small grants from a variety of sources including the LTA, Boxmoor Trust and generous donors while £41,000 in interest free loans from the LTA underpinned the lighting of courts 1-3 and clubhouse remodelling. Our main sources of income have been members’ subs and coaching, and these have enabled us to fund expenditure while growing a sinking fund for future projects.
Of course we need to keep things in good condition and over the last 6 years alone the club has invested over £13,000 to maintain and clean the playing surfaces while grounds maintenance has helped ensure we have a facility of which we can be justly proud. From modest beginnings and with a lot of hard work our village club has grown into a facility enjoyed and appreciated by members and visitors alike.
One long-standing issue has been the state of the potholed access road. We and the football club now have an opportunity to replace the surface with an extremely durable new concrete road at a very favourable cost and have reached agreement that this will be laid in August.
We will keep members up to date as all of these projects progress and if you have any questions please direct them to any committee member. This is a major step forward for the club and we look forward to enjoying our brand new courts in 2020.
The Committee
28th July 2019