Project serves up park tennis
Sunderland leisure chiefs are serving up a new project to get people healthy.
More than £380,000 is being invested to breathe new life into 17 tennis courts in parks across the city after Sunderland City Council secured £310,000 funding from the Government and the Lawn Tennis Association), which it is matching with £71,000 from its own budget.
The project is part of a nationwide investment to refurbish public tennis courts across Great Britain, and open up the sport to many more people.
The scheme will see thousands of existing park tennis courts brought back to life through renovation works, and improved court accessibility with new gate-access technology and booking systems.
Accessible facilities in parks are particularly critical to opening up the sport to those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and women and girls
The work will see improvements to tennis courts in seven parks across the city at: Barnes Park; Roker Park; Ryhope Park; Usworth Park; Barley Mow Park; Thompson Park; Hetton Park.
Following the funding decision, the City Council will also work with the LTA and partners to deliver a range of activity across the refurbished park sites.
This will include weekly organised free park tennis sessions for all ages, playing levels and experience with equipment provided so people will not need someone to play with or to be able to afford their own racket. Local Tennis Leagues will also provide friendly, sociable, opportunities to get active through local competition.
All courts and sessions at all sites will be available to book online via the LTA website https://www.lta.org.uk/ play/book-a-tennis-court/
Work is expected to start next month.
Cllr Linda Williams is the council’s Cabinet Member for Vibrant City: "We're delighted to have been able to secure this funding from the Lawn Tennis Association to put into revamping tennis courts at parks across the city,” she said.
"This is all about listening to residents and responding to their feedback by investing funding into tennis courts in parks across our city for the benefit of our communities.
It's also about supporting a new generation of players to get into tennis and enjoy all the physical and mental health benefits that come from being physically active. And who knows, this kind of investment along with the city's fantastic sporting facilities and the opportunities to be active in our city could see the tennis stars of the future coming up through the ranks in Sunderland."
LTA chief operating officer Julie Porter said the association was looking forward to seeing a resurgence of interest in the sport on Wearside: “We are delighted to be working with Sunderland City Council toimprovetheirparktennisfacilities and provide more opportunities for anyone to pick up a racket and get active.
"This investment is part of the UK Government and LTA’s Parks Tennis Project, and will mean that courts will be available for people to use for years to come.
“We will also be working closely with Sunderland City Council to ensure that the local community have a range of accessibleopportunitiestoget oncourt,andopenupoursport to many more people.”