Plympton Tennis Club is encouraging the community to get behind a Crowdfunder appeal which aims to get all the tennis courts at Harewood Park back open again.
When able to be used the courts are open to the Plympton public with an online booking system with the club providing coaching and playing opportunities. The tennis courts at Harewood Park were originally maintained and repaired by Plymouth City Council but in recent years due to cutbacks Plympton Tennis Club has taken increasing responsibility for cleaning and maintenance of them.
Club volunteers now maintain the courts and they need to raise £42,000 to pay for court resurfacing. This may at first seem a tall order, but Jane Wilson from Plympton Tennis Club urged:
“Don’t be daunted by this – if we get £10,500, Plymouth City Council will support us and pledge £21,000 from its City Change Fund. The club is then allowed to use another £10,500 from its reserves to complete the bid. Our current fund stands at over £9,000, so not too far to go.”
There are four courts at the park, two of which were resurfaced in 2015 following fundraising and grant applications by the club, but the other two courts have now had to be decommissioned after failing a risk assessment in September 2021. It is more than 20 years since any substantial work was done to those two courts and they now need resurfacing before play can resume on them again and the two ‘newer’ courts could also do with repainting.
Following the COVID lockdowns the courts were very busy with their usage tripling and it was apparent how much the community really valued the facility. Outdoor tennis is COVID-safe and if the club is not able to raise the money to resurface the two decommissioned courts they will remain closed and opportunities for local people to play tennis will literally be cut by half.
Among the club’s future hopes are to offer free tennis to people recommended by referrals to benefit their health and wellbeing. They already provide sessions for wheelchair players as a result of which the club received Devon County’s Tennis Community Award in 2019.
More details of the fundraising attempt to resurface the courts can be seen at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/save-plympton-community-tennis-courts where there are details of how people can help by making donations or buying rewards.
(Story courtesy of the Plympton Podcast)
