Rain pauses play on Salford tennis plans

It’s a dreaded but familiar phrase at Wimbledon – rain pauses play.

Now the soggy summer and a backlog of construction work has put the covers on – temporarily – on Salford’s plans to re-open 21 refurbished tennis courts.

Councillor Barbara Bentham, lead member for environment, neighbourhoods, sports and leisure, said it was extremely frustrating that the Great British Summer had gone from hot to horrible just as the courts were nearly ready to re-open.

“In some parks there is still quite a bit of construction work to finish and court resurfacing to complete which the weather isn’t stopping but it isn’t helping,” she said.

“In others, before we can open the courts to players, contractors have to finish the hard court painting. That’s no small job and they need a consistent spell of dry weather for that because the paint has to be applied to a dry surface. The courts are due to be inspected in the next few weeks to get their safety certificates and, if all goes well, should be open very soon after that.

“The tennis open day showed how much people are looking forward to these new courts and we had hoped to finish the work soon after that. We’re very close and our aim is to get as many as possible open in the next few weeks but with the weather behaving so unpredictably, we can’t put a precise date on that. We will keep people updated so please bear with us.”

Twenty-one tennis courts across Albert Park, Boothsbank Park, Buile Hill Park, Eccles Recreation Ground, Lightoaks Park, Park Parr Fold Park and Victoria Park have been improved.

Salford Community Leisure (SCL) and We Do Tennis will offer free public coaching and work with children, young people and schools to encourage youngsters to try tennis.

Salford City Council has worked with the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) using government funding, its own investment and Section 106 money from developers to carry out the project.

Through the Parks Tennis Project, the LTA is delivering the biggest ever investment in parks tennis facilities providing a significant boost to sporting facilities. This funding is part of the UK government’s and LTA’s joint investment of over £30 million, to bring thousands of tennis courts in poor or unplayable condition brought back to life across Britain, and support a new generation of players to get active by trying the sport.