Live on 17th January 2022    |    Updated 24th February 2022

The Parks Tennis Team have been investigating the possibility of upgrading the Park Tennis courts at West End to include a new surface, new fencing and ClubSpark gate access. Unfortunately, the site has a number of logistical issues as outlined below resulting in us not being able to go ahead with the project. 

The Local Ward Councillors and the Leisure Portfolio holder met with the Park Tennis Officers at West End on Wednesday 5th January 2022 to discuss the site, investigation findings and the future possibilities of the site. It was agreed by all to not continue the upgrade project at West End due to the reasons outlined below, this was agreed at Cabinet on the 12th January 2022 and agreed at Council on the 23rd February 2022.

Flood Wall

West End was identified as an area at risk of flooding: "Formal flood defences including earth embankments and concrete flood walls are present along both banks of the River Mole from West End in Esher downstream to the confluence with the River Thames. These defences form part of the Lower Mole Flood Alleviation Scheme."

The flood wall runs along the perimeter of the recreation ground on the highway side, passing right next to the back fence of the Park Tennis courts. In order to ensure the safety and integrity of the flood defences, we cannot create an entrance (temporary or permanent) in the wall for any type of vehicle to pass through. 

Pipeline

West End Recreation Ground is within the buffer zones for national infrastructure oil supply pipelines. Redevelopment of the Tennis Courts on the site would necessitate consultation to be undertaken to ensure safe working practices are maintained due to the close proximity to the Park Tennis court. To ensure the safety and integrity of the pipelines, they are regularly patrolled by helicopters.

If any upgrade or new facility works were to take place, the contractors vehicles including lorries would have to cross the pipeline a minimum of two times on the recreation ground itself and then again to exit the recreation ground. The lorry bringing in the new surface would most likely have to sit directly across the pipeline due to the surrounding flood wall and trees. 

Any works near/on pipelines or flood walls would require applications to the Environment Agency at a cost of over £1,200 per application with no guarantee of success or explanation if the application/s were unsuccessful. 

Trees

The Park Tennis courts at West End are surrounded by trees on either side, these trees have been there for many years and their roots are growing under the courts. The smaller trees could potentially be moved to another area if they are deemed too close to the tennis courts, however the larger trees could not be moved as they provide many benefits and are valuable to the environment.

Due to the trees being so close and their roots growing under the courts, there is a potential risk that additional funding would be required to dig out the roots and to create a barrier, or we may not be able to secure agreements to remove the roots due to the potential damage it could cause the trees.

The whole tennis court area currently doesn’t meet LTA recommend minimum size guidelines, which would mean they would need to be extended during any upgrade works. This would be difficult to achieve due to the flood wall at the back, pipeline at the front and trees on either sides.

Court Usage

Every month the Parks Tennis team carry out a monthly data collection on hours booked at each Park Tennis venue across the borough, which is then shared with the LTA. West End's court utilisation for 2021 was only at 6% with only 443.5 hours booked throughout the year. 

• Long Ditton: 42% court utilisation = 2971 court hours in 2021
• Civic Centre: 35% court utilisation = 2464.17 court hours in 2021
• Cobham rec: 33% court utilisation = 2332 court hours in 2021
• Churchfields: 30% court utilisation = 4281.5 court hours in 2021
• Cricket Way: 30% court utilisation = 2096 court hours in 2021
• Giggs Hill: 24% court utilisation = 1699 court hours in 2021
• Elmgrove: 21% court utilisation = 2940 court hours in 2021
• Oatlands: 20% court utilisation = 1429.5 court hours in 2021
• Coronation: 19% court utilisation = 2678.33 court hours in 2021
• Molesey Hurst: 16% court utilisation = 1720.67 court hours in 2021
• Grovelands: 16% court utilisation = 1136 court hours in 2021
• West End: 6% court utilisation = 443.5 court hours in 2021

To work out court utilisation the LTA have divided the total number of court hours in 2021 at each site by each sites total number of daylight hours. The total number of daylight hours at each site are dependent on the number of courts, for example each individual court has 3510 daylight hours so the total amount of daylight hours to book at a four-court site is 14040 and a two-court site would be 7020 daylight hours.

LTA benchmarking data suggests that any park venue can cater for 250 players per court based on real booking data from venues across the Country, this is due to the more infrequent play in a park compared to a member’s club. As of October 2021, there were 3,040 current Park Tennis members (at less than 50% capacity), this is also reflected in court utilisation across the network of parks (using real booking data) which ranges from 16-42% across the 11 sites with gate access technology (see data above).

Therefore, if the two courts at West End Rec were lost, there would be a total of 29 park tennis courts across the Borough of Elmbridge. Using LTA benchmarking data this suggests that the court stock across the Borough could cater for 7,250 park players.

When you consider population changes up to 2039 (according to ONS) Elmbridge's population is due to increase by 15.58% to 153,500 residents. If we assume parks tennis membership increases at approximately the same rate, this would be an increase of 474 members, taking parks membership up to c3,500, still only c50% of total capacity.

Typically we know park players are willing to travel up to a 10 min drive time to play recreational tennis, when we look at West End’s 10 min catchment we can see there are three other park venues (Esher Civic Centre, Elmgrove and Coronation Rec) in this catchment, with 9 individual courts currently at 36% court utilisation.

In terms of the network of other tennis facilities in Elmbridge, there are 15 clubs/venues that also offer tennis facilities comprising of 113 tennis courts (49 of which are floodlit). Although only one of these facilities offers non-member pay and play (Imber Court), therefore these club courts appeal to a different type of tennis player to those that play in parks. However, it still goes some way to demonstrate the current extent of tennis facilities across the Borough.

Summary

As we have outlined above, a comprehensive investigation has taken place regarding the possibility of upgrading the Park Tennis venue at West End. This has been supported by the LTA who have provided data and statements for the tennis report and it has been discussed in depth with the local Ward Councillors and Leisure Portfolio Holder.

In the tennis report, all data from the investigation was presented and it was put forward that the West End project would not go ahead and the tennis courts at this location would continue as tennis for as long as safely possible. We will then arrange to have the nets and posts removed and it will become an open access recreation area. This was agreed at Cabinet on the 12th January 2022 and at Council on the 23rd February 2022.

There are no plans or conversations on looking at Padel Tennis as an alternative for the site at this present time or in the near future. As outlined above the site will continue as tennis and then revert to an open access space. 

Possibly in the future there will be additional investigations building on what we have started and available money to further investigate into the ability to upgrade/transform the venue into new courts or into a different sporting/recreational facility. However, the challenges as outlined above will remain and will require applications at cost to the relevant outside organisations. The Council will provide any relevant updates and information on the West End site as and when required.

Further Information

If you have any further questions which have not been covered, please contact Parks Tennis: parkstennis@elmbridge.gov.uk and we will then update this page accordingly.