Free Sessions to Be Offered at Refurbished Roehampton Tennis Courts

---

£105,000 investment in facility through partnership of council and LTA


Part of an initiative to encourage participation in the sport

May 19, 2023

There will be an opportunity to use newly upgraded tennis facilities at Roehampton Playing Fields for free from next month.

The courts have been renovated thanks to a £105,000 investment made by a partnership between Wandsworth Council and the LTA which will be running family sessions with racquets provided at no charge as part of scheme to promote the sport.

Five tennis courts at the playing fields in Dover House Road are to be fully upgraded to offer high quality playing surfaces for budding Andy Murrays and Emma Raducanus.

Alongside the investment, Wandsworth Council, the Roehampton Playing Fields Community Trust and the borough’s leisure and culture contractor Enable, will all work with the LTA and local coaching provider Emma Wells Tennis to deliver a range of activities across the site.

This will include weekly organised free tennis sessions for all ages, playing levels and experience, where equipment is provided, meaning that people will not need someone to play with or their own racket. Local Tennis Leagues will also provide opportunities to get active through local competition.

The project is part of a nationwide programme managed by the LTA to refurbish public tennis courts and open up the sport to more people. The scheme will see thousands of existing park tennis courts upgraded.

Judi Gasser, Wandsworth’s Cabinet Member for Environment said, “I’m delighted that these new tennis courts will be opening in Roehampton and will offer local people really top-quality facilities to play the sport. I’d like to express my thanks to the LTA Tennis Foundation for their investment in our borough.

“I’m pleased too to learn that there will be free weekly sessions at the playing fields that whole families can attend with equipment provided. This scheme will deliver fantastic community benefits and hopefully nurture a future Wandsworth-born Wimbledon Champion.”

Julie Porter, Chief Operating Officer at the LTA, said, “We are delighted to be working with Wandsworth Council to improve their park tennis facilities 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 Wandsworth Council and its partners to ensure that the local community have a range of accessible opportunities to get on court and open up our sport to many more people.”

These revamped tennis courts can be booked this link.
https://clubspark.lta.org.uk/RoehamptonPlayingFields

Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site.