Court charges will deter kids

In my last column I wrote about what a shame it was that school sporting facilities get locked away for the summer, with little chance of the local community using them.

My focus was particularly on tennis cour ts.

The same week a story broke that RBWM have decided they will start charging residents in Maidenhead for the privilege of using the tennis courts at Desborough, Kidwells and Oaken Grove parks.

The council have struck a deal with the Lawn Tennis Association and will receive about £100,000 to improve these facilities.

About £14,000 of this is to be spent on ‘smart gate system costs’, which is how they intend to keep those out who haven’t paid.

Whilst it is great that these amenities are being modernised, there are issues that will not sit well with many residents.

We have entered a cost of living crisis not seen for 50 years, so it is perhaps an odd time for the powers that be at the council to wake up one morning and decide ‘what we need to do now is start getting our residents to cough up a bit more’.

Although we are a relatively affluent part of the country, the heating versus eating option will be very real for many.

Cllr Hill (tBF, Oldfield) spoke passionately about this very theme at the council meeting when this topic was addressed.

Cllr McWilliams, cabinet member for sport and leisure, argued that ‘this may well encourage us to identify a Wimbledon champion at some point in the future’.

It indeed may be a first experience of tennis if you are well-off, but what if you are poor?

Won’t the access-controlled entry gates be metaphorically slammed in the faces of those who are struggling to make ends meet?

Despite these concerns, Cllr McWilliams was adamant that these changes were ‘welcoming people in, not shutting them out’, believing that running courts at reasonable prices were necessary as alternative to private clubs.

He insisted there would be free programmes for those who might struggle to pay.

As ever, the devil will be in the detail. It will be great for Maidenhead’s parks’ tennis courts to have a revamp, but little has been said yet about how it will actually work. I would like to know more about the pricing strategy.

How much will it cost to hire a court for an hour? How will this be varied to accommodate different income groups, like children, pensioners or low earners? Will there be peak and off peak prices? If the pricing is set too high, as I suspect it might be, how soon after will it be reviewed to consider reducing prices to increase occupancy rates?

It would be lovely to have first world facilities but utilisation also needs to be considered.

If the non paying public are locked out and only 20 per cent of courts during a day are booked, then you have to question the wisdom of such a scheme.

Surely courts should be priced at whatever yields upwards of 80 per cent use?

If that means charging only a pound an hour at certain times, then so be it.

Those on benefits and kids should play for next to nothing.

Devising a fair pricing scheme that is not open to abuse will be challenging.

With the exception of the newly built Leisure Centre, the council don’t have a great record on their support for local sport, as members of Maidenhead Golf Club will testify.