Overtoun Covered Courts and Our New Viewpark Clubhouse As Part of Our Big Centenary Celebrations in 2022

Our proposal to build covered tennis courts in Overtoun Park creating a vibrant community hub

Issue 2.0 16th November 2020

www.RutherglenLTC.com/Project100 #RLTCProject100

CONTACT DETAILS

This document has been prepared by: The members of Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Club 21-23 Viewpark Drive Viewpark Drive Burnside Glasgow G73 3QE www.RutherglenLTC.com

Contact:

Gareth Ellor Club President Tel: 07852 773451 e-mail: [email protected]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY We passionately believe that tennis should be accessible to everyone. We also recognise, through bitter experience, that the Scottish climate inhibits the growth and development of our sport. Despite our 7 existing courts off Viewpark Drive and Burnside Road being floodlit and “all-weather”, we still lose at least 4 weeks every year due to rain, frost and snow. Moreover, we believe a huge amount of people in the local community would love to take up the game, but are not keen to play outdoors over winter and the lack of year-round consistency discourages them from joining our club. Also, there is great ambition within our club to expand our highly successful community outreach programmes, a big appetite within schools, youth/community groups etc. to play more tennis, and funding available to support this. However, we are very much at the mercy of the Scottish weather as to how much we can do. Covered courts would allow us to deliver this on a sustained, year-round basis providing an environment and 2 conditions that everyone can enjoy. Furthermore, without covered courts, we are not able to provide the reliable, quality training environment to allow our best juniors to meet their full potential, meaning that they have to travel or move away from the Rutherglen area to access the indoor facilities they need to become elite tennis plyers. More generally, we believe there is considerable appetite amongst the local community for affordable, “pay- as-you-go” tennis due to the complete loss of traditional public park courts over the last couple of decades, with covered courts providing this opportunity on a year-round basis. We therefore share the views of the Lawn Tennis Association and Tennis Scotland that quality, affordable indoor facilities are essential if we want to establish tennis as a mass participation sport and grow tomorrow’s champions.

We want to meet these challenges head-on by building 4 covered tennis courts in Overtoun Park, Rutherglen, on the site where public blaes courts thrived for decades until they were lost to the community in the 1990s. Our plans would therefore return tennis back to the park after a ~30 year absence. Delivered by tennis players for tennis players, they will meet the needs of all; young and old, novice to elite, getting more people playing tennis more often – rain, hail or shine. Or, as we like to say reign, hale and shine! We are a not for profit community orientated Tennis Club serving the Rutherglen and wider South Lanarkshire population. Through the work of a wide pool of highly capable and enthusiastic volunteers we give hundreds of people, young and old, and from all walks of life, the chance to enjoy the enormous health and social benefits tennis delivers in a fun and supportive environment. We've helped people tackle challenges such as obesity, stress, anxiety, bereavement and disability to make them fitter, happier and healthier. Our wheelchair tennis programme (we believe a Scottish first) and our unique McDonalds’ sponsored schools programme (providing free tennis to hundreds of local children) are just two examples of our strong community ethos.

Winning back-to-back Tennis Scotland Club of the Year Awards in 2016 and 2017 shows our efforts and achievements are being recognised across the tennis community. We’ve enjoyed phenomenal success over the last few years, completely transforming ourselves from a small, sleepy club, primarily used recreationally during spring/summer/autumn by members living local to the courts, into one of the most innovative and dynamic tennis clubs in Scotland. Our membership has grown from under 100 to ~440 in less than 10 years. We raised £250,000 to save and expand into the derelict courts at Burnside Bowling Club in 2017 to give us the extra space we so badly needed, but this only served to accelerate our growth and we’re fast approaching capacity once again. So, unless we provide access to more courts we may soon need to close membership and establish a waiting list. Four additional courts in Overtoun Park would meet this need and allow us to continue to grow giving even more people the chance to allow tennis to enrich their lives.

General location of development NOTE: Building footprint would be 80m x 40m (maximum) and so would only take-up approximately one third of the space shown. We’re flexible on how building is positioned/orientated.

Maximum building footprint and suggested location South Lanarkshire Council indicating a preference to site structure along boundary with Health Centre

Our proposed facility will be a simple steel frame structure with a tensioned fabric (PVC) skin. This construction has been chosen as we believe it to be the most cost-effective way of delivering the facility we need. This will be a no-frills facility; just exceptional yet affordable covered courts (cheapest in Scotland) within a passionate tennis environment which welcomes all. Cost will be fundamental to the success of this project. If it’s not affordable then we won’t build it. We just want to keep the wind and rain off players and keep the courts free of snow and frost allowing people to play in all-weather. But that doesn’t mean it will be an eyesore. We have a number of ideas as to how we can make this structure fit nicely into the setting and be something that looks attractive and appealing and which the community can be proud of. A spine of converted shipping containers will separate the four tennis courts and two “Padel” courts and provide the required accommodation and facilities. This will add to the rustic, contemporary and stylish feel of the overall facility. Padel Tennis or “Padel”, which is growing rapidly all over Europe, is more accessible than traditional “lawn” tennis. It requires less physical effort, at a basic level at least, and generates longer rallies due to the small size of the court. We therefore see it as a great way for people put off by lawn tennis to get fit and active and 4 have fun either as a stand-alone sport or as a stepping stone into lawn tennis. There are currently no Padel courts in South Lanarkshire or indeed the greater Glasgow area. This facility will provide a truly all-weather home where we can expand and develop our hugely successful club, community and performance programmes, including community “pay-as-you-go” use and limited FREE slots to make tennis truly open to all. However, whilst the driving force behind this proposed facility is tennis, we see it being much, much more than this. Tennis provides the structure on which we want to build a vibrant hub of activity that the whole community can enjoy as illustrated below.

. Heartbeat of the facility . Healthy, affordable and tasty food PRODUCE . Fully wheelchair accessible and buggy friendly . Dog friendly . Home from home where people can work and socialise . Venue for regular community social events

Community Café with FREE WiFi Tennis Shop Community & Restringing Cinema Service

Physio & Green Health Sports Injury Initiative? Clinic . Rutherglen Community Council . Burnside Community Council . CamGlen Sports Council . Community Classes Meeting Strength & space for Conditioning Community Coaching Groups

Wheelchair Catalyst and Accessible base for Public Toilets upgraded w/ Baby BMX track? Change

Affordable, Base/home pay-as-you-go for other tennis with sports clubs FREE slots Functional . Glasgow South Table Tennis Club FREE Table space for . General Public Tennis, Pool . Cambuslang Harriers games, . Schools & Table . Bowling Club – Carpet Bowls classes, . Community Groups Football events etc.

. Basketball . Carpet Bowls . Fitness/Exercise/Yoga Classes . Tea Dances . Quizzes

The size of the overall building is dictated by the size of the tennis courts and headroom required (9m at apex and 4m at sides), so there is ample space to accommodate all of these facilities, and more, without growing the overall building. It therefore provides a framework for a vibrant and diverse community hub to grow and thrive. However, this is no pipe-dream. Through our passion and commitment to make this project a reality, we have invested a great deal of time and effort into building relationships with local businesses, enterprises, community organisations, groups and clubs who share our ethos and vision and want to work with us to achieve this goal. This facility will provide a lively hub where people come to exercise, interact and relax. The busier it is the better it is for our club. The healthier our club, the more we can do for the local community. We see this as very much a symbiotic relationship where a not-for-profit tennis club can help the community and vice versa. Many experts are forecasting that in a post coronavirus society more people will work from home and will be looking to use local amenities and facilities. This will change communities and neighbourhoods. We see our plans as being very much complementary to this “new normal” – a place to work, meet, eat, exercise and socialise right in the heart of our local community. 5 We will build, own and operate this facility on a fully sustainable basis as a not-for-profit, community focussed organisation, thereby delivering all of these benefits to the local community at no cost to South Lanarkshire Council or its residents. By carefully blending commercial enterprise (e.g. tennis shop, physio etc.) with our voluntary ethos, we believe we can provide an exceptional quality facility within a friendly, welcoming and supportive environment which the whole community can enjoy on a highly affordable basis. Our expansive public consultation has demonstrated there is huge community support for our plans. In total, we have received 679 responses to our on-line survey; 82% of responders “support fully” the proposal and 9% “tend to support”. So, overall, 91% of responders are supportive of our plans. We have also worked very hard to listen to any concerns people may have regarding any aspect of our plans, particularly from the residents surrounding the park, and this has allowed us to incorporate measures and mitigations which we believe will minimise the impact of the facility on the local area to deliver a significant net benefit to the wider community. Parking is a particular concern for local residents and we very much empathise with this. We are therefore proposing what we hope will be viewed as a sensible and pragmatic solution of utilising the car park within the adjacent Rutherglen Primary Care Centre (RPCC) and forming an entrance to our facility off this. As part of our project, and entirely at our cost, we are proposing to install additional car parking spaces by repurposing the existing grass verge running inside the south boundary of the car park to cover the spaces we require during weekday daytime. We would use the RPCC car park in evenings and at weekends, where it provides way more spaces than we would ever need. This additional car parking provision, which will be funded entirely by this project and which we believe will be compliant with SL Council parking standards, will benefit all users of the car park. Peak time usage by each activity (i.e. RPCC and tennis) is at different times in the day thereby enabling optimal use by both users at complimentary periods, thus helping to address, to a small degree, wider car parking issues in the local area. We believe this solution offers three key benefits. Firstly, it keeps the entrance away from Overtoun Drive, reducing the impact of the facility on these residents. Secondly, it provides sufficient spaces for all additional cars thereby avoiding any additional parking in neighbouring streets. Last but not least, it establishes a main entrance to our facility off the RPCC car park, making it readily accessible to staff and patients of the centre, delivering a wide range of mutual benefits. We also have very strong support from within the Scottish Tennis community, as demonstrated through Judy Murray’s support. They recognise our passion and energy and the success we have achieved in building a community focused club, and see this as a strong foundation on which we can deliver this project. We accept that our proposal breaks the mould. We are not a council or education facility who have hitherto attracted the support and funding from Tennis Scotland, the LTA and sportscotland to build such facilities in Scotland. However, we feel very strongly that our identity and this novel approach should work to our advantage. Indeed, we see this identity as encapsulating why we believe we can achieve success in terms of promoting and developing the game of tennis in Scotland to a much greater extent than these other ventures on the basis that:

. Only a community club can deliver the “triangle of opportunity” which we see as being the secret to our success. . Only a not-for-profit club driven by passionate, committed volunteers, and with revenue from strategically aligned commercial ventures, can deliver the low-cost, accessible, inclusive and welcoming environment and culture that is fundamental to the success of this vision. . Only an organisation with the sole purpose of promoting the development of tennis will ensure that the facility delivers on this vision throughout its life Club without succumbing to other pressures. 6 It is us who have created the appetite for tennis within the local community through all our hard work, passion, dedication and commitment, and it is us that have established the recipe for success to deliver on this vision. Yes, others may consider that there are higher priority areas for indoor tennis courts in Scotland, but we are Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Club, this is our home and the community we care deeply about, and we have the ability, ambition and drive to make this a huge success. We are following the route-map illustrated below. This document represents the culmination of Stage 1 and presents our written proposal to South Lanarkshire Council to hopefully secure “Heads of Terms” agreement for a 25 year lease of the land on a peppercorn rent basis. With “Heads of Terms” agreement we will then have a window of opportunity and security on the site to deliver the project via successive stages. STAGE 1 STAGE 2 STAGE 3 STAGE 4 Scoping & Development Detailed Design Planning Implementation

Work with SLC to agree “Heads of Terms” for lease of land for 25 years for a “peppercorn” rent. Undertake ground investigation Secure Building Develop detailed proposal covering: work . Where it will be located. Warrant . What it might look like. . How it will work. Appoint Develop detailed Build Facility . How it will be managed. Collate into Contractors . The benefits it will deliver to the detailed proposal facility design community. document. . How it will be funded. Resolve any Test/Commission . How it will generate sufficient Apply for Planning income to be entirely self- Planning conditions sustaining in future. SLC Yes Permission Open agree Heads of Agree Terms? construction Determine community appetite for Secure funding programme with Official Opening facility and identify what facilities, No all relevant Ceremony services, opportunities etc. they Stakeholders would like to see within facility and, wherever possible within overall Planning objective of project, work to include Permission & these within plans. funding secured? Yes Collaborate openly and constructively with all community organisations interested in getting No involved in our project.

We believe a peppercorn rent is wholly appropriate on the basis that as a “not-for-profit” community organisation, any costs we incur will directly impact what we can do to support the local community. Also, we are proposing to turn an underused area of parkland into a vibrant community hub that everyone can enjoy, entirely at our cost.

Our plans are big, they’re certainly bold and many people will say they’re way beyond us. However, if you look at where we’ve come from and what we’ve achieved, and ignore the preconceived limitations of what a Scottish tennis club is supposed to do, we firmly believe they are a natural and achievable next step. Just like we grew into our Burnside courts, we are now ready to grow into four more covered courts. We see this very much as evolution rather than revolution. We have the know-how, drive and formula to make a huge success of this venture and generate huge returns in terms of growing the game of tennis – not just within the local area, but within the Scottish tennis community by smashing the glass ceiling that restricts the growth of our clubs, hopefully inspiring others to follow suit, benefitting the game on a national level.

ISSUE RECORD Issue Date Description 1.0 6th November 2020 . First formal issue on completion of Stage 1. . Issued to South Lanarkshire Council as our proposal for a “Heads of Terms” agreement for the long-term lease of the land. 2.0 16th November 2020 Minor amendments made to Sections 7.3.1 and 8.6 which present a summary of the meeting between Rutherglen LTC and SL Leisure & Culture held on Thursday 3rd September 2020 to discuss this project. These amendments were made at the request of SL Leisure & Culture as they felt that the way the original text was presented overstated their commitment and support to the project or indeed our interpretation of this. We recognise that the project is at a very early stage and that when we met SL Leisure & Culture, we were merely having an 8 open and constructive discussion about the potential of the facility. We fully understand and respect that there is no commitment from SL Leisure & Culture on any aspect of our proposal and if we want to progress this project we need to go through all normal routes and channels. We have merely included the ideas discussed at this meeting to: . Illustrate the benefits our proposed facility could deliver to the local community. . Record all the great ideas from SL Leisure & Culture so that they are not forgotten and can be explored in detail if we can agree “Heads of Terms”. . Demonstrate that we have consulted widely with all relevant stakeholders – which SLC strongly encouraged us to do. We reviewed the relevant sections and extracts which cover these discussions and did not consider that we had done this, but recognise that the SL Leisure & Culture has to take a demonstrably neutral position on such matters and so we have tweaked the wording to try and address this feedback and clarify this position and understanding. This revised wording has been reviewed and agreed by those representatives from SL Leisure & Culture who attended the meeting.

CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ...... 12 1.1 BACKGROUND ...... 12 1.2 PURPOSE OF DOCUMENT ...... 12 1.3 RUTHERGLEN LAWN TENNIS CLUB ...... 12 1.4 WHY COVERED COURTS? ...... 14 1.5 WHY OVERTOUN PARK? ...... 15 1.6 OUR VISION ...... 16 9 1.7 ROUTE-MAP ...... 17 1.8 SCOPE AND STRUCTURE OF DOCUMENT ...... 18 1.9 ABBREVIATIONS ...... 19 2. THE RLTC STORY ...... 20 3. THE FACILITY ...... 29 3.1 LOCATION ...... 29 3.2 FACILITY OVERVIEW ...... 30 3.3 TENNIS COURTS ...... 32 3.4 PADEL COURTS ...... 33 3.5 SUPPORTING FACILITIES ...... 34 3.6 COMMUNITY CAFE ...... 34 3.7 TENNIS SHOP ...... 34 3.8 PHYSIO & SPORTS INJURY PRACTICE ...... 34 3.9 COMMUNITY SPACE ...... 34 3.10 EXTERNAL GROUNDS ...... 35 3.11 CYCLE STORAGE ...... 35 3.12 SERVICES ...... 35 3.13 ASSESSMENT OF IMPACT ON LOCAL AREA ...... 36 3.13.1 Loss of green space ...... 37 3.13.2 Visual Impact ...... 37 3.13.3 Light Pollution ...... 37 3.13.4 Noise ...... 37 3.13.5 Parking ...... 38 3.13.6 Anti-Social Behaviour ...... 40 3.13.7 Ground Contamination ...... 40 3.14 OVERALL SITE LAYOUT ...... 40 4. OPERATION & MANAGEMENT ...... 41 4.1 OVERVIEW ...... 41

4.2 OPERATING HOURS ...... 42 4.3 ACCESS & USE ...... 42 4.4 PARKING ...... 42 4.5 SECURITY...... 42 4.6 FACILITY MANAGEMENT ...... 42 4.7 OPERATING COSTS ...... 43 4.8 SUSTAINABILITY ...... 43 5. FINANCE & COMMERCIAL ...... 44 6. TENNIS DEVELOPMENT PLAN ...... 45 10 6.1 WHERE ARE WE NOW? ...... 45 6.2 JUST THINK WHAT WE COULD DO WITH COVERED COURTS! ...... 46 6.2.1 Grow the Club ...... 46 6.2.2 Expand and enhance our Community Programme ...... 47 6.2.3 Expand and enhance our Performance Programme ...... 47 6.2.4 Establish a central hub to promote the game of tennis across South Lanarkshire ...... 47 6.2.5 Expand what we do to support Scottish Tennis ...... 48 6.3 TRIANGLE OF OPPORTUNITY ...... 49 6.4 WHY OVERTOUN PARK, WHY RUTHERGLEN LTC? ...... 49 7. COMMUNITY HUB ...... 52 7.1 OVERVIEW ...... 52 7.2 COMMUNITY BENEFITS ...... 52 7.2.1 Community Café, Social Space and free Wi-Fi ...... 52 7.2.2 Tennis Shop and Restringing Service ...... 53 7.2.3 Physio/Sports Injury Clinic ...... 53 7.2.4 Resident Strength & Conditioning Coach ...... 53 7.2.5 Public Toilets ...... 53 7.2.6 Free Table Tennis/Table Football/Pool ...... 53 7.2.7 Functional space for games/classes/events ...... 54 7.2.8 Flexible spaces for community use ...... 54 7.2.9 Community Cinema ...... 54 7.2.10 Cycle Storage ...... 54 7.2.11 Wider Park Development ...... 54 7.3 COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS ...... 54 7.3.1 Rutherglen Primary Care Centre ...... 54 7.3.2 Grow73 ...... 55 7.3.3 Glasgow South Table Tennis Cub ...... 55 7.3.4 Cambuslang Harriers ...... 56

7.3.5 Local Bowling Clubs ...... 56 7.3.6 ‘Healthy n Happy’ ...... 56 7.3.7 ‘Enable’ ...... 56 7.3.8 Rutherglen Bankhead Tenants and Residents Association ...... 56 7.3.9 CamGlen Bike Town and BMX Track ...... 57 7.3.10 Friends of Overtoun Park ...... 57 7.3.11 Local Community Groups ...... 58 7.3.12 Other ...... 58 7.4 CONCLUSIONS ...... 58 11 8. PUBLIC CONSULTATION ...... 60 8.1 RUTHERGLEN LTC MEMBERSHIP ...... 60 8.2 ELECTED OFFICIALS ...... 62 8.3 COMMUNITY GROUPS ...... 62 8.4 LOCAL TENNIS CLUBS ...... 63 8.5 PRIMARY SCHOOL PARENT COUNCILS ...... 64 8.6 SL LEISURE & CULTURE ...... 64 8.7 SL EDUCATION ...... 65 8.8 LOCAL RESIDENTS ...... 65 8.9 COMMUNITY SURVEY ...... 66 8.9.1 Background, Objectives & Methodology ...... 66 8.9.2 Overall views on the proposal ...... 66 8.9.3 Views on the location of the Facility ...... 67 8.9.4 Potential usage and impact of the facility ...... 67 8.9.5 Possible concerns ...... 68 8.9.6 General feedback ...... 69 8.10 CONCLUSIONS ...... 69 9. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ...... 70 10. APPENDICES ...... 74

1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Club will be one hundred years old in 2022. #RLTCProject100 is about celebrating this centenary and, more importantly, readying the club to play an even greater role within the local community and wider Scottish tennis community. It’s about securing a strong and healthy future for our club for the next century and beyond, to benefit future generations, and incorporates three key elements:

Rather than these being separate projects, we’ve pulled them all together under a single vision (#RLTCProject100) - the idea being that we celebrate the opening of the Overtoun Covered Courts and our new Viewpark Clubhouse as part of our big Centenary Celebrations in 2022. 1.2 PURPOSE OF DOCUMENT This document sets out our detailed plans for the second element of #RLTCProject100, our proposal to build four new covered tennis courts in Overtoun Park, Rutherglen, just a short walk from our Viewpark and Burnside Courts. For more information on the first and third elements of #RLTCProject100, please visit our dedicated project page on our website at: https://www.rutherglenltc.com/project100/ 1.3 RUTHERGLEN LAWN TENNIS CLUB Located just 3 miles south east of Glasgow city centre and benefitting from excellent public transport links, we are one of the most active and progressive Tennis Clubs in Scotland. We have 7 all-weather courts which are floodlit for year-round play. These are split across two nearby venues. We have 4 Artificial Grass courts located off Viewpark Drive, our home for nearly 100 years, and 3 Artificial Clay courts located off Burnside Road, which formerly operated as Burnside Tennis Club, an affiliated section of Burnside Bowling Club, until they became derelict. We saved and expanded into these courts in summer 2017, leasing them from Burnside Bowling Club on a long-term basis, to give us the extra space we so badly needed given our rapid growth and expansion. Both venues are fully accessible.

Viewpark Courts Burnside Courts Viewpark Drive Burnside Road Burnside Burnside Rutherglen Rutherglen Glasgow Glasgow G73 3QE G73 4RB ------4 Floodlit Artificial Grass Courts 3 Floodlit Artificial Clay Courts Mini Tennis Court Clubhouse with WC, Changing Rooms & Kitchen Practice Wall Access to Burnside Bowling Club Bar & Clubhouse Basketball Court --- Table Tennis Clubhouse with WC, Changing Rooms, Shower & Kitchen ---

We are big enough to offer great facilities and lots of tennis and social opportunities for everyone, but small enough to be run by members for members and retain the friendly, welcoming environment we pride ourselves on. We offer loads of opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to enjoy the wonderful game of tennis any day of the week, any day of the year, whether this is: . Informally with friends and family; . Socially with like-minded club members through various weekly social play sessions and numerous special events throughout the year; . Competitively as a member of one of our many teams that play at all levels in the West of Scotland Leagues, various Regional and National Competitions, as well as our annual Club Championships; . As part of our Coaching Programme led by the British Tennis Coach of the Year 2016, Jonny Willcox, giving kids and grown-ups the opportunity to fulfil their tennis ambitions whatever they may be, or; . Through numerous community outreach initiatives of which we are hugely proud.

Our commitment to provide a vibrant, high quality, affordable and welcoming club was recognised by Tennis Scotland who awarded us the accolade of “Club of the Year 2016” and then again in 2017. We are incredibly proud to have been the first club to win this award for two consecutive years. But it’s not just about tennis. We’ve worked hard to create a very active off-court social scene too, with our now-legendary Quiz Night, Grand Slam-themed tournaments, end-of-season Awards Night and many other events over the course of the year. We are a tennis club but first and foremost we are a progressive, welcoming, supportive and inclusive community that works incredibly hard to make peoples’ lives better. 1.4 WHY COVERED COURTS? REASON 1: The Scottish weather We passionately believe that tennis should be accessible to everyone. We also recognise, through bitter experience, that the Scottish climate inhibits the growth and development of our sport. Whilst many of our 14 members are a hardy bunch who’ll play whenever the courts are playable, despite our courts being “all- weather”, we still lose at least 4 weeks every year due to rain, frost and snow. Moreover, it’s impossible to quantify how many hours of play are missed through people being put-off by inclement weather. We believe a huge amount of people in the local community would love to take up the game, but are not keen to play outdoors over winter and the lack of year-round consistency and continuity discourages them from joining our club.

Also, there is great ambition within our club to expand our highly successful community outreach programmes, a big appetite within schools, youth/community groups etc. to play more tennis, and funding available to support this. However, we are very much at the mercy of the Scottish weather as to how much we can do. Covered courts would allow us to deliver this on a sustained, year-round basis providing an environment and conditions that everyone can enjoy. Furthermore, without covered courts, we are not able to provide the reliable, quality training environment to allow our best juniors to meet their full potential, meaning that they have to travel or move away from the Rutherglen area to access the indoor facilities they need to become elite tennis plyers. We therefore share the views of the Lawn Tennis Association and Tennis Scotland that quality, affordable indoor facilities are essential if we want to establish tennis as a mass participation sport and grow tomorrow’s champions. We want to meet these challenges head-on by building 4 covered tennis courts in Rutherglen. Built by tennis players for tennis players, they will meet the needs of all; young and old, novice to elite, getting more people playing tennis more often – rain, hail or shine. Or, as we like to say reign, hale and shine! We’re deliberately using the word “covered” rather than “indoor” as the courts may not be completely enclosed to keep costs down. Cost is going to be fundamental to the success of this project. If it’s not affordable then

we won’t build it. This will be a no-frills facility. We just want to keep the wind and rain off players and keep the courts free of snow and frost allowing us to play in all-weather. Also, given the current COVID-19 restrictions, covered courts may be more “pandemic friendly” than fully indoor courts in the years ahead. REASON 2: We need more courts We always thought that our new Burnside Courts, which we opened in 2017, would give us all the extra space we would ever need, but they have only served to heighten our energy, profile and ambition and accelerate our growth as a result. In less than three years we've reached the arbitrary capacity for a 7 outdoor court club - 420 based on 60 members per floodlit court, as recommended by the Lawn Tennis Association. Rutherglen LTC - Membership

450 Recommended limit – 60 members/floodlit court = 420 15 400

350

300 250 Kids 200 Adults 150

100

Figure 1.1: Membership Growth So, unless we provide access to more courts we’ll need to close membership and establish a waiting list. It would be an enormous shame if we were prevented from using our passion and energy to further increase participation in tennis due to an arbitrary limit. The four additional courts in Overtoun Park would meet this need and allow us to continue to grow giving even more people the chance to allow tennis to enrich their lives. 1.5 WHY OVERTOUN PARK? Having investigated a number of potential locations, we believe Overtoun Park provides the ideal home for our new covered courts for three key reasons.

1) The proposed site, the plot of land between the BMX track and Overtoun Bowling Club, is currently lying unused, providing no real benefit to the community.

2) Overtoun Park is a short walk from our existing Viewpark and Burnside facilities, making the facility readily accessible to our members on foot or bike, whilst maintaining the compact, “village” feel that we believe has been so instrumental to our success.

3) There were formerly 8 public blaes courts thriving in this area of the park for decades until they were lost to the community in the 1990s. Our plans would therefore return tennis back to park after a ~30 year absence.

PROPOSED LOCATION

Figure 1.2: Proposed location relative to our existing facilities 1.6 OUR VISION Our vision is to build a unique covered tennis centre in Rutherglen which will trail-blaze a new approach to growing the game of tennis in Britain; . The best covered tennis courts in Scotland. . No frills, no luxuries, just exceptional yet affordable covered courts (cheapest in Scotland) within a passionate tennis environment which welcomes all. . Provides a truly all-weather home where we can expand and develop our hugely successful club, community and performance programmes, including community “pay-as-you-go” use and limited FREE slots to make tennis truly open to all.

. A central hub to promote, grow and develop the game of tennis in South Lanarkshire. . Venue for local, regional and national competitions. . Great café serving healthy food and drink at sensible prices and offering free Wi-Fi. However, whilst the driving force behind this proposed facility is tennis, we see it being much, much more than this. Tennis provides the structure on which we want to build a vibrant hub of activity that the whole community can enjoy, including; . Visitors/spectators encouraged and warmly welcomed. . Café open to the public. . Toilets available for public use. . FREE Table Tennis, Table Football and Pool. . FREE Wi-Fi. . Community cinema showing classic films and big sporting action. . Flexible/functional spaces available for community use (dance, fitness, yoga, exercise, fitness, art classes etc., meetings etc.). The size of the overall building is dictated by the size of the tennis courts and headroom required, so there is ample space to accommodate all of these facilities, and more, without growing the overall building. It therefore provides a framework for a vibrant and diverse community hub to grow and thrive. This is key to our plans and we want to reach out to all community organisations who could make use of this space and facility and do everything we possibly can to incorporate their requirements and aspirations within the constraints of the project. We want to create a lively hub where people come to exercise, interact and relax. The busier it is the better it is for our club. The healthier our club, the more we can do for the local community. We see this as very much a symbiotic relationship where a not-for-profit tennis club can help the community and vice versa.

Many experts are forecasting that in a post coronavirus society more people will work from home and will be looking to use local amenities and facilities. This will change communities and neighbourhoods. We see our plans as being very much complementary to this “new normal” – a place to work, meet, eat, exercise and socialise right in the heart of our local community. Imagine this: . A book group meets in the café over a coffee. . A team of employees meet for lunch and a catch-up. . A few local residents pop in to do some work from the café using the free Wi-Fi. . Some staff from the neighbouring Health Centre pop in for a take-away lunch. . One of our coaches delivers a fun session for local school children on Court 1. . On Court 2, another coach delivers a cardio-tennis session to patients from the neighbouring Health Centre prescribed a programme of exercise through South Lanarkshire’s social prescribing programme. 17 . Four ladies enjoy a social doubles on Court 3. . Gordon Reid, Paralympic gold medallist and Grand Slam champion (and friend/supporter of Rutherglen LTC as described in Section 2) practices on Court 4 ready for departure to the US Open, captivating and inspiring everyone in the building. . Local children enjoy some free table tennis. . Two retired gents play some Padel Tennis and a yoga class is underway on the second Padel Court. . The café team sit down to plan their next themed street-food evening and cinema night which they run on the last Saturday of every month. . Some park users pop in to use the toilet and grab a coffee. . The secretary of a local community group sets up one of the meeting spaces ready for a meeting that evening. . A Cambuslang Harriers jogging group use the facility as a base for their weekly training session. 1.7 ROUTE-MAP Figure 1.3 presents a route-map to deliver this project. We are currently in Stage 1 and this document represents the “Detailed Proposal Document” which we will submit to South Lanarkshire Council to hopefully secure “Heads of Terms”. With “Heads of Terms” agreement we will then have a window of opportunity and security on the site to deliver the project via successive stages. STAGE 1 STAGE 2 STAGE 3 STAGE 4 Scoping & Development Detailed Design Planning Implementation

Figure 1.3: Route-Map for Project Delivery

1.8 SCOPE AND STRUCTURE OF DOCUMENT This Proposal Document is structured as follows:

Summarises our key successes over the last few years giving a flavour of the huge passion and energy we share to further develop as a club Section 2 and give even more people the opportunity to enjoy tennis. This is The RLTC Story what gives us the motivation and confidence to take on this major project.

Describes where the facility will be located, what it will look like (both externally and internally), what it will contain and assesses the likely Section 3 impact on the local area, describing the mitigations and measures The Facility which will be taken to minimise this. 18 Describes how Rutherglen LTC will operate and manage the facility as an extension/annex to our two existing sites off Viewpark Drive and Burnside Road to create a fully integrated, community focussed tennis Section 4 club to give as many people as possible the opportunity to enjoy tennis Operation & Management (and thereby deliver the vision described in Section 6) and create a vibrant community hub which everyone can enjoy (as described in detail in Section 7).

Details our proposed procurement and contracting strategy for the build of the facility and presents a detailed cost for the complete facility based on 3 competitive quotes for all key elements and including all professional fees. Section 5 Describes how we propose to raise the funds to build the new facility Finance & Commercial and presents our Business Plan which demonstrates that it will generate sufficient income to allow us to operate the facility effectively over its life on a fully self-sustaining basis, without compromising our existing facilities. Describes how we will use the facility as a truly all-weather home to expand and develop our hugely successful club, community and performance programmes, including community “pay-as-you-go” use and limited free slots to make tennis truly open to all and give even Section 6 more people the opportunity to get fit and healthy playing tennis. In Tennis Development Plan addition, it describes how we will use the facility to create a central hub to promote, grow and develop the game of tennis in South Lanarkshire.

Describes in detail our vision to create a lively social hub, beyond tennis, where people come to exercise, relax, learn, interact, socialise Section 7 etc.; how this will be achieved, what it will offer and the benefits it will Community Hub deliver right across the community.

Presents the findings of our expansive public consultation which shows that there is huge appetite for this facility within the local community Section 8 and wider tennis community and that, wherever possible and Public Consultation practicable, we’ve listened to the needs, aspirations and concerns of these communities and shaped our plans around these.

Presents our responses to the most common questions and queries we received during our public consultation through e-mail, phone Section 9 conversations, social media posts and our Zoom meeting with local Frequently Asked Questions residents.

1.9 ABBREVIATIONS RLTC Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Club LTA Lawn Tennis Association LTC Lawn Tennis Club RPCC Rutherglen Primary Care Centre SLC South Lanarkshire Council

2. THE RLTC STORY We are a not for profit community orientated Tennis Club serving the Rutherglen and wider South Lanarkshire population. Through the work of a wide pool of highly capable and enthusiastic volunteers we give hundreds of people, young and old, and from all walks of life, the chance to enjoy the enormous health and social benefits tennis delivers in a fun and supportive environment. We get feedback on a daily basis that we’re changing lives for the better. We've helped people from all walks of life tackle challenges such as obesity, stress, anxiety, bereavement and disability to make them fitter, happier and healthier. We're hugely proud of this. Our wheelchair tennis programme (we believe a Scottish first) and our unique McDonalds’ sponsored schools programme (providing free tennis to hundreds of local children) are just two examples of our strong community ethos. Winning back-to-back Tennis Scotland Club of the Year Awards in 2016 and 2017 shows our efforts and achievements are being recognised across the tennis community. We’ve enjoyed phenomenal success over the last few years, completely transforming ourselves from a small, 20 sleepy club, primarily used recreationally during spring/summer/autumn by members living local to the courts, into one of the most innovative and dynamic tennis clubs in Scotland. Whilst we very proudly remain a local community club, we do attract members from all over the West of Scotland due to our first class coaching programme, fantastic courts and our reputation for being welcoming and inclusive to all ages and abilities and providing a wide range of opportunities. Here’s some of our highlights and a few of the secrets to our success:

1) Through our #ReturnToSplendour project, we raised £250,000 to save and expand into the derelict courts at Burnside Bowling Club creating a fully integrated 7-court club split across two nearby venues. Our new Burnside courts were officially opened by Judy Murry in November 2017 and we've used these as a spring-board to further expand and develop and offer even more opportunities to our members and the communities we serve.

2) Our membership has soared to 422, more than quadrupling in 10 years (see graph in Section 1). This has been achieved by a highly ambitious and committed committee backed by an enthusiastic membership who all share a passion to open-up our fantastic facilities to everyone in the local community to allow them to enjoy the wonderful game of tennis. Having previously thought that the three additional courts at Burnside would give us all the extra space we would ever need, in less than three years we've reached the arbitrary capacity for a 7 outdoor court club - 420 based on 60 members per floodlit court, as recommended by the Lawn Tennis Association.

3) Our Annual Open Weekend continues to be a landmark day in the local community calendar. We open our doors to the public for a full weekend every April giving lots of people the chance to enjoy tennis. More than 400 people attend our Open Weekend each year. This has been the single biggest contributor to our rapid growth and expansion.

4) We’ve formed a close friendship with Judy Murray who has visited us on a number of occasions inspiring children and grown-ups alike. She has openly complemented our efforts, values and ethos on social media and holds us up as an exemplar of a progressive, community-based club. She also loves our home baking! We were thrilled when Judy volunteered to hold a Zoom Q&A session during coronavirus lockdown providing a fascinating, inspiring and entertaining evening for all our members during a difficult time.

5) We have more teams competing and at a higher level than at any point in our near 100 year history.

6) All our junior teams compete in the top division of the West of Scotland leagues. Our Boys U12 team are current West of Scotland champions.

9 & Under Orange Ball Team – 2nd in West of Scotland Boys 12 & Under – Division 1 CHAMPIONS

7) We have 13 juniors involved in the West of Scotland County Programme and we have 5 juniors training and competing at national level. Our top junior and overall Club Champion, Sam MacLeod, has just moved to the US to take-up a tennis scholarship at Mercer University in Georgia. Sam is a huge inspiration to all our juniors who will very much miss getting the chance to hit with him regularly.

8) We are working closely with more than ten local primary schools to provide FREE tennis to hundreds of children through a highly innovative sponsorship deal with McDonald's Rutherglen franchise.

9) Although a members club, we’re enormously proud of the extent to which we make our facilities available to everyone in the local community. We estimate over 3,000 people benefit from our facilities, events and activities each year. Here are a few examples: . Our Coaching Programme is open to all. . Our FREE weekly Junior Aces Club gives children from all backgrounds the chance to enjoy tennis. . Our Children’s Holiday Camps are open to all. . Our ground-breaking sponsorship deal with McDonald's described above provides FREE tennis to hundreds of children and culminates in our annual schools tennis festival hosted at our club. . Our partnership with Fuse Youth Café offers children the opportunity to play tennis at a local club and upskills their workforce allowing them to deliver tennis sessions year-round. . Local Nursery “ACE Place” regularly use our courts. We’re working with them to up-skill their staff so that they can lead fun tennis sessions for all their children. . Our wheelchair tennis class is getting people active and having fun regardless of disability. . Our Open Weekends, Fun Days etc. give people regular opportunities to play tennis for FREE and enjoy lots of social interaction.

10) With a little help from ex GB Paralympian Kevin Simpson, we were the first Scottish club to introduce wheelchair tennis into our coaching programme. Our commitment and support of wheelchair tennis has been recognised recently by Gordon Reid, Paralympic gold medallist and two time Grand Slam champion, who chose our club and our coaching team to practice in preparation for the US Open in September 2020.

23 11) Our club is driven by a large team of passionate, committed volunteers who dedicate a huge amount of their own time to look after and manage our facilities to provide opportunities the whole community can enjoy. They all share our passion to serve the local community and are extremely proud of our growth and success and the difference we make to people’s lives. This “for members, by members” ethos allows us to provide exceptional facilities and opportunities which are highly accessible and affordable.

12) We've created a fantastic social community. Our Quiz Night, attended by over 100 people each year, our Annual Awards and 4 Grand-Slam themed Tournaments being just a few examples.

13) In recognition of all these fantastic achievements, we won the Tennis Scotland Club Of The Year Award in 2017 for the second straight year – the first club ever to win back-to-back awards.

14) Our Club President, Gareth Ellor, was awarded Tennis Scotland's "Volunteer of the Year" in 2013 and their "Outstanding Achievement" award in 2017. 24

15) We appointed a new Head Coach, Jonathan Willcox, in 2015 to implement a Coaching Programme that matches the energy and vibrancy of the wider club. We saw this as the last piece in the jigsaw of creating a club that offers something for everyone, with emphasis on inspiring and developing children - our future. Through a huge amount of hard-work, commitment and dedication, Jonny quickly established a highly successful programme that offers something for all our members and reaches out to the wider community in a number of highly innovative ways. Jonny's success is a huge relief to the Committee who were hitherto responsible for managing all on-court activities. We are absolutely thrilled Jonny has assumed responsibility for all tennis activities, working harmoniously with the Committee. We are privileged to have one of Scotland's most dedicated and talented coaches working for us and under his direction and support we can look forward to continued success on and off the court. Jonny’s efforts and achievements were recognised when he was crowned British Tennis Coach of the Year and the sportscotland Young Coach of the Year in 2017. Jonny has built a passionate and dedicated coaching team who work under his leadership to deliver our on-site coaching programme and community outreach programmes. The strength and depth of this team was recognised when Cedric Decuyper, one of our lead coaches, was crowned Cambuslang and Rutherglen sports Council Coach of the Year for 2017.

16) We officially "twinned" with Wortham Lawn Tennis Club in Suffolk when they visited Rutherglen for the GB Davis Cup tie versus the USA in April 2015. Our two clubs met whilst travelling to support Team GB in their ties in Croatia and Italy in 2013 and 2014. Although we met watching elite tennis, it's created a strong bond and friendship that's helped both clubs improve in many ways. We've established a network of contacts that allow us to share ideas and experiences which have already yielded significant benefits to both 25 clubs. We have helped each other make improvements in areas such as club administration, facilities management, social tennis, competitions and fundraising to name just a few. This relationship came into its own during the coronavirus crisis where we were able to help and support each other in a wide range of ways during this very challenging time. Fuelled by our shared passion, this network of contacts will continue to deliver benefits to both clubs over many years to come. Both clubs created a strong friendship with the former LTA President Cathie Sabin who sadly passed away in April 2020. Cathie was incredibly supportive of both our clubs, probably because she was equally passionate about grass-roots tennis, and we will forever miss her support encouragement and warm smile. She very much encouraged our collaboration and twinning seeing first-hand the benefits it delivered to both clubs. Our book “Cathie and the Twinned Clubs”, which we presented to her at the end of her tenure as LTA President, records the wonderful experiences we all shared with her and provides lasting memories we’ll cherish forever.

17) We’ve got a very active on-line presence; with over 1,000, 800 and 100 followers on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram respectively, a great website and regular newsletters.

@RutherglenLTC Rutherglen__LTC RutherglenLTC.com

18) In addition to raising considerable sums to support our own endeavours, we’ve applied our imagination, creativity and enthusiasm to raise over £20,000 for a number of charities dear to our hearts.

19) We endured our darkest day when one of our most well-known members tragically passed away on court whilst playing with friends between Christmas and New Year in 2013. The club showed tremendous strength in pulling together and supporting John’s family and have created a lasting legacy which will ensure John is never forgotten. We’ve invested in a Defibrillator with the help of the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and have trained 20 members in its use, to prevent lives like John’s being lost in future. On the anniversary of John’s passing we hold the annual John Harris Memorial Tournament 26 raising funds for the BHF to allow them to continue their great work.

20) We were invited to speak at the Tennis Scotland Annual Club Development Conference in Dunblane in November 2017 to share our experiences and insights in growing a tennis club and what we see as the secrets of our success.

Open

Profile Culture

Support Facilities Secrets Successof our success

Social Community ?

Volunteers Comms

Coaching

21) In June 2016 we completed Expedition #MOUNTENNIS to raise funds to save and expand into the derelict courts at Burnside Bowling Club. This involved us playing tennis on the UKs three highest peaks in 24 hours.

You can watch a film of our adventure at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgLft-e7loQ

22) For #RLTCProject100 we want to do something even bigger and better than #MOUNTENNIS – a challenge that will raise lots of money to help deliver this project, raise its profile as high as we can to give us the best chance of success, and match the ambition of the project itself. We assembled a hugely committed and clearly mad team who were ready to attempt to cycle 1,000 kilometres from Rutherglen to Wimbledon for the start of the 2020 Championships. Due to coronavirus, we had to put our plans on hold but this gives us another year to make it even bigger and better for 2021. We will depart Rutherglen on Sunday 20th June 2021, arriving for the start of play on Day 1 of the Championships on Monday 28th June. We’ll swing by our sister club Wortham LTC in Suffolk who’ll join us on the last leg into London. Each evening along the way we’ll find a bit of ground in a prominent location to set-up a mini- tennis court and give passers-by the chance to play some tennis.

23) In 2019 we hosted our first open tournament since the 1990s – the Lanarkshire Open – taking over the running of this from Uddingston Lawn Tennis Club. With the help of a very generous and committed title sponsor, DM Hall, our wonderful tournament committee organised a fantastic event with participation almost doubling from previous years. This was a great opportunity for our juniors and seniors to compete with some of the best players in Scotland at their home club. We received wonderful feedback from all competitors who were hugely impressed with our facilities and the time effort and trouble we went to make them feel welcome and enjoy their week at the cub. Tennis Scotland were thrilled with the event also and want us to continue to host this as an annual event for years to come.

3. THE FACILITY 3.1 LOCATION It is proposed to site the facility on the plot of land within Overtoun Park between the BMX track and Overtoun Bowling Club as illustrated in Figure 3.1. PROPOSED LOCATION

Figure 3.1: Proposed location of Overtoun Covered Courts showing proximity to our existing facilities As illustrated in Figure 3.2, the proposed facility would take up approximately one third of this plot. We are flexible on the position and orientation of the structure and so could position it at any location. South Lanarkshire Council (SLC) have indicated a preference for the facility to be sited along the eastern boundary with the neighbouring Rutherglen Primary Care (Health) Centre (RPCC) located off Stonelaw Road.

Maximum building footprint and suggested location South Lanarkshire Council indicating a preference to site structure along boundary with Health Centre

Figure 3.2: Footprint of proposed facility and preference indicated by SLC

3.2 FACILITY OVERVIEW The overall building structure will be ~80m long by 40m wide with a pitched roof 9m high at the apex (centre) and 4m at the eaves (sides). The proposed facility will be a simple steel frame structure with a tensioned fabric (PVC) skin. This construction has been chosen as we believe it to be the most cost-effective way of delivering the facility we need. All we are looking for is a shell to keep the rain and snow off the courts and shelter players from the elements. The overall space will therefore not be heated and so we will not require any insulation within the structure. This keeps the cost of the structure down as much as possible whilst also minimising its weight, reducing the size of the required foundations, further reducing cost. By not heating the overall space we will minimise running costs whilst also minimising our carbon footprint. Cost is absolutely fundamental to the success of this project. If it’s not affordable then we won’t build it. This will be a no-frills facility. We just want to keep the wind and rain off players and keep the courts free of snow and frost allowing us to play in all-weather. 30

Figure 3.3 illustrates the layout of the proposed facility. With each of the key elements described further in the following sub sections.

Figure 3.3: General layout of proposed Overtoun Covered Courts Foundations will comprise a reinforced concrete ring beam onto which the steel frame will be bolted. This may need to be piled depending on the make-up of the ground. This will be determined early in Stage 2 as illustrated in Figure 1.3. The four tennis courts will be laid on a crushed stone base as will the two Padel courts. A spine of converted shipping containers will separates the two sets of courts and provide the required accommodation and facilities. This will add to the rustic, contemporary and stylish feel of the overall facility. The shipping containers will be seated on suitable concrete foundations. This relatively light civil structure will help keep costs down whilst also being a huge advantage given the ground contamination issues the proposed site suffers from. It is proposed to float the new structure over the top of the existing ground using an appropriate barrier system where necessary, thereby avoiding the need to remove any contaminated spoil from the site.

Figure 3.4 shows the inside of a similar facility built at a University in England.

Figure 3.4: Similar covered courts at English University The images shown in Figure 3.5 show what the exterior of the building could look like. This would provide a fully enclosed facility, with the sides constructed from the same PVC material which forms the tensioned roof or from blockwork or wooden panelling to provide enhanced security.

Figure 3.5: Options for exterior finish of covered tennis courts The tensioned fabric skin will be semi-translucent to avoid the need to operate court lighting during daylight hours. This will reduce operating costs as well as the facilities carbon footprint. In addition, it will help create the “outdoors-indoors” feel we are trying to achieve. We’re deliberately using the word “covered” rather than “indoor” as the courts may not be completely enclosed to keep costs down. We are therefore also considering a similar design to that of the covered tennis court in Rothiemurchus just outside Aviemore as illustrated in Figure 3.6.

Figure 3.6: Covered Tennis Court in Rothiemurchus near Aviemore In this design, the sides are left open and secured via fencing you would see around a typical outdoor tennis court. One further potential benefit of this design is that the open sides provide natural circulation of air making it much more like an outdoor space. This could be a big advantage in a post coronavirus society allowing some tennis to continue in a future pandemic. We are experiencing first-hand the problems faced by fully indoor facilities during the coronavirus crisis. 3.3 TENNIS COURTS The four tennis courts will be constructed using a composite acrylic resin system spread over a tarmac base itself laid onto a crushed stone foundation. This finely textured impervious surface offers consistent paced, medium height ball bounce throughout the surface playing life. It is an excellent surface for all ages and abilities and is the widest played surface across professional tennis, including the US Open and Australian Open Grand Slam Championships (see Figure 3.7).

Figure 3.7: Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic battling it out on an acrylic tennis court in the US Whilst the overall facility will be simple and utilitarian in nature to keep costs down, the courts themselves will be of exceptional quality, providing the best covered courts in Scotland. This will be achieved through a combination of the court surface itself but also the way we accessories the space with quality, stylish features

such as sight-screens, signage, graphics, score-boards, benches, seating etc. to give the courts a professional feel. We have a proven track record of delivering great looking, professional feeling tennis courts on a budget by working creatively and imaginatively with local designers, engineers, craftsmen etc. many of whom give their time for free to help develop the club, or in return for publicity for their business through sponsorship.

3.4 PADEL COURTS Padel Tennis or “Padel”, which is growing rapidly all over Europe, is played on an enclosed court about a third of the size of a tennis court as illustrated in Figure 3.8. The rules are the same as tennis, played with the same balls, although serving is under-arm and the walls are used as part of the game. Players use a smaller, moulded racket also shown in Figure 3.8.

Figure 3.8: Overview of Padel Tennis Padel is great for all ages; it’s not power dominant and caters well for all levels of play. With limited racquet skills players can quickly engage in dynamic and fun rallies, utilising the court’s surroundings. Padel is always played in doubles, which makes it very sociable and therefore ideal for the entire family. You can watch a short film about Padel featuring Jamie Murray by clicking the link below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=14&v=zk1vgCuBs88&feature=emb_logo One of the main reasons why Padel is proving so popular is it’s more accessible than traditional “lawn” tennis. It requires less physical effort, at a basic level at least, and generates longer rallies due to the small size of the court. We therefore see it as a great way for people put off by lawn tennis to get fit and active and have fun either as a stand-alone sport or as a stepping stone to lawn tennis. In addition Padel is a fun, sociable alternative to lawn tennis that is enjoyed by experienced tennis players as articulated in the above video by Jamie Murray. Growing the game of Padel in the UK is a huge priority for the Lawn Tennis Association who are making significant funding available to support this. As there are only a handful of Padel courts in Scotland and none in Glasgow or the surrounding area, we stand a very good chance of securing such funding. One further advantage of providing Padel courts within our proposal is they provide natural, self-contained spaces that can be used in a wide variety of ways, e.g. fitness, yoga or dance classes, basketball court etc.

thereby enhancing the flexibility and versatility of the overall facility helping deliver the vibrant community hub that forms our overall vision as described in Section 1.6. 3.5 SUPPORTING FACILITIES As illustrated in Figure 3.3, a spine of converted shipping containers will separate the four tennis courts from the two Padel courts. The ground floor of this shipping container “village” will provide toilet, changing and showering facilities along with ample storage space for all our equipment.

3.6 COMMUNITY CAFE A community café will operate out of a converted shipping container which will sit on top of the lower spine and serve onto an expansive decked viewing area covering the full footprint of the shipping container village. The decked area will accommodate extensive tables, seating etc. providing great views out over both the tennis and Padel courts. This café and social space will play a central role within our vision of a vibrant community hub within the heart of Rutherglen which is described in detail in Section 7. It will provide a friendly, 34 relaxed environment for everyone to enjoy a highly affordable menu which meets the needs of our members and the wider community. The tensioned fabric roof will allow users to enjoy the outdoor feel of this contemporary, vibrant space in all weathers. An integral lift will make it fully wheelchair accessible and buggy friendly.

Figure 3.9: Outside, inside Café serving from a converted shipping container 3.7 TENNIS SHOP It is proposed to fit-out and lease one of the shipping containers at ground level to an experienced tennis retailer allowing members, visitors etc. to purchase tennis clothing and equipment and get their rackets restrung. This is discussed further in Section 7.2.2. 3.8 PHYSIO & SPORTS INJURY PRACTICE It is proposed to fit-out and lease one of the shipping containers at ground level to a private Physiotherapist and Sports Injury Practice allowing members, visitors etc. to benefit from this service. This is discussed further in Section 7.2.3. 3.9 COMMUNITY SPACE The size of the overall structure is dictated by the size of the tennis courts and headroom required. There is therefore ample opportunity to incorporate a range flexible/functional spaces within the facility design and increase the size of the shipping container village to support wider community use, for example: . Open spaces for dance, yoga classes etc. . Enclosed rooms for art classes, book groups, meetings etc.

. Space for table tennis, pool, table football etc. which we would make free of charge to attract people into the facility. . Space for spin classes, circuit training, fitness classes etc. . A community cinema showing classic films and big, live sporting events. It could therefore serve as a framework for a vibrant and diverse community hub to grow and thrive. This is key to our plans and we want to reach out to all community organisations who could make use of this space and facility and do everything we possibly can to incorporate their requirements and aspirations within the constraints of the project. This is discussed further in Section 7. We want to create a lively hub where people come to exercise, interact and relax. The busier it is the better it is for our club. The healthier our club, the more we can do for the local community. We see this as very much a symbiotic relationship where a tennis club can help the community and vice versa. 3.10 EXTERNAL GROUNDS 35 It is proposed to landscape the surrounding grounds (planting, paths etc.) to provide an attractive environment that the whole community can appreciate and enjoy. This is something we believe has been critical to the success of our Burnside project. Within this landscaping project, we plan to include outdoor seating for café users to enjoy in nicer weather. 3.11 CYCLE STORAGE A key objective behind the development of our Overtoun Covered Courts is to encourage even more of our members to cycle to this facility than currently do to our Viewpark and Burnside courts. This has many advantages. It improves health and well-being, reduces carbon emissions and minimises parking burden (see Section 3.12.4). We will positively encourage users to access the new facility via bike by providing generous, quality and secure cycle storage facilities similar to those illustrated in Figure 3.10 within the external grounds.

Figure 3.10: Cycle Storage 3.12 SERVICES A review of site services has been completed to determine: . A suitable location and scope of work to connect into the services required in the proposed facility. . The work required to divert any existing services to facilitate the construction of our facility. All site services drawings are presented in Appendix 1.

The findings of this review are presented below: Gas There is no existing plant on the site that would require diversion. There is no requirement for gas within the proposed facility. Electricity There is no existing plant on the site that would require diversion. There is a low voltage cable shown to be located within the park, to the south of the proposed building that could be utilised to provide the connection required. If this doesn’t have sufficient capacity then there are alternative options on Johnston Drive and Overton Drive. In the unlikely event that facility would require an HV supply, there is a sub- station located between the two blocks of retirement flats, opposite No. 8 Johnston Drive. BT There is no existing plant on the site that would require diversion. There are BT ducts within the park, to 36 the south of the facility, on Johnston Drive and on Overton Drive, so plenty of opportunity for the facility to use this provider for the required telecommunications connection. Virgin Media There are Virgin Media ducts supplying the properties on Overton Drive and Johnston Drive, so it is anticipated that the site can be served by this network, as an alternative to BT. Scottish Water (Drinking Water) There is no existing plant on the site that would require diversion. There are existing 100mm diameter and 4” mains on Johnston Drive, Overton Drive and Stonelaw Road. It is anticipated that these mains would be used to supply the development, however a pre-development enquiry will be submitted at the start of Stage 2 to determine if there are any known capacity constraints. Scottish Water (Foul Drainage) There is a combined sewer crossing the site which will have to be diverted to suit the building footprint. The sewer will provide the outfall from the toilets and kitchen area as illustrated in Appendix 1. Scottish Water (Surface Water Drainage) The surface water from the roof will have to be treated by filter trench and attenuated by a flow control device prior to being piped to the existing surface water drain located in Stonelaw Road. The surface water from the new parking bays (see Section 3.13.5) will also be subject to treatment and attenuation prior to discharge into the new pipe. A pre-development enquiry will be submitted at the start of Stage 2 to determine if there are any known capacity constraints. It is likely that the volume of attenuation will be around 300m3 which will be accommodated in part by the filter trench around the perimeter of the building. The most cost-effective solution for accommodating the remainder is likely to be an above ground depression which would only be filled with water in extreme rainfall events and would provide a source of water to serve the adjacent Grow73 community gardens (see Section 7.3.2). This design will be developed in Stage 2. 3.13 ASSESSMENT OF IMPACT ON LOCAL AREA We believe that our proposed covered tennis courts in Overtoun Park will be a huge asset to the local community. However, if our plans were inadequately conceived or executed, they could have a detrimental impact on the local neighbourhood. Whilst a decision by South Lanarkshire Council to agree “Heads of Terms” would be conditional on us securing planning permission for the entire development in the normal way, it makes sense to consider all potential impacts now to avoid time and effort from both parties being wasted progressing a proposal that is unlikely to gain planning approval in future. So, whilst we would prepare and submit a detailed Planning Application as part of Stage 2 of the routemap illustrated in Figure 1.3, the following sub-sections explore what we see as the key planning issues before describing the measures we intend to put in place, both in terms of the design of the facility and the way it is operated and managed, to ensure these impacts are not significant.

3.13.1 Loss of green space Clearly this development will result in a loss of greenspace. As illustrated in Appendix 2, excluding the landscaping around the structure (grass verges, fencing and cycle/footpath) our building will take up around one third of the grassy area between the BMX track and Overtoun Park Bowling Club. Our public consultation has demonstrated that there are wildly different views on what benefits this area of public land offers to the local community. Whist a small number say that it is very well used and extremely popular, there is a bigger group who view it as boggy unusable space. The majority of people consider it to be somewhere in between. Whilst our club certainly does not condone losing greenspace – we are an outdoor sports club which hugely values the great outdoors and open spaces - it is our strong belief that our proposed facility will offer way more to the local community than in its current state, on the basis that: . The facility will deliver the wide community benefits described in Section 7. 37 . As described in Section 3.12, our facility will improve the current flooding problems as the rainwater that falls onto the building will be collected and discharged into the groundwater system rather than accumulating within this grassy area. Also, as described in Section 7.2.11, there are opportunities to hugely improve the quality of the remaining grassy area so that, even although a smaller space, it will be used by more people than present. . Our community café, public toilets and secure bike storage will attract more people into this area of the park. . With our proposed landscaping around the structure and ideas for an outdoor seating area, this area of the park will be much more appealing than present, again attracting more people. . Whilst the facility would result in a loss of passive open space (grass) it will be replaced with active space in form of sports facilities accessible to the general public. Yes, our proposal will result in a loss of some green space, but with our ideas and vision, we believe we can hugely enhance this area of the park, allowing many more people to benefit from the remaining space than currently do across the whole plot, not to mention benefit from the community hub that lies within.

3.13.2 Visual Impact Clearly there will be a visual impact associated with building such a large structure in an open space. There are opportunities through the design of the structure and in particular the tensioned fabric skin (see Section 3.2) to blend it into the surroundings and make it an attractive piece of architecture (e.g. colour, printed graphics etc.). There is also the opportunity to clad the structure in natural materials to help blend it into its setting. Rutherglen LTC are happy and keen to work with SLC planners and other interested groups to develop an attractive, appealing design during Stage 2 of the project (see Figure 1.3 in Section 1) wherever possible within the financial viability of the overall scheme. In addition, we want to make the surrounding grounds and access routes appealing to the eye and of benefit to the wider community. This is discussed further in Section 7.

3.13.3 Light Pollution The tensioned fabric skin will be semi-translucent to avoid the need to operate court lighting during daylight hours. This will reduce operating costs as well as its carbon footprint. In addition, it will help achieve the “outdoors-indoors” feel we are trying to achieve. As a consequence, there will be some light spillage during hours of darkness when the court lights are on. However, with the facility closing at 10pm each night, as per our existing facilities at Viewpark and Burnside (see Section 4), and with this spillage manifesting as subtle glow (see lower image in Figure 3.5) rather than any direct shine/glare from external floodlights such as those at our Viewpark and Burnside courts, we do not consider this to be intrusive to local residents, particularly given the proposed siting of the facility away from the houses along Overtoun Drive and Johnstone Drive.

3.13.4 Noise The new facility will generate some noise. In terms of the noise generated from tennis activities (ball striking, line calling etc.) this will be less than from the outdoor blaes courts that previously existed in this location in

the park due to them being enclosed. In addition, the covered courts will be sited further from the houses on Overtoun Drive than the old courts. The noise generated from other activities will be low given that they will be contained within a fabric structure and the strict operating hours will mean that the facility will be closed at 10pm each night at the latest. Rutherglen LTC are happy and keen to work with SLC planners and other interested groups to develop a scheme to minimise noise during Stage 2 of the project (see Figure 1.1 in Section 1) wherever possible within the financial viability of the overall scheme. 3.13.5 Parking Background Our goal is to build a thriving community hub that everyone can enjoy. An inevitable outcome of this success will be that it attracts lots of people, some of whom will travel by car. We do not want to provide car parking within the park for the following reasons: 38 . We do not want to take-up any more green space than is strictly necessary to build our facility. . We want to keep the cost of the facility as low as possible to make it achievable in the first instance and viable long-term. . It is likely that any spaces we did provide would be used by other park users, negating the benefit to our facility. In addition, we recognise that we must avoid a significant increase in parking within the surrounding streets to avoid the centre impacting negatively on local residents. Parking Analysis To help inform a solution to this quandary, we have completed a detailed study of how we think users will travel to our facility to determine the maximum number of additional cars that we would expect will require parking at any given time throughout a typical week, broken down as follows: . Weekday – Daytime. . Weekday – Evening. . Weekend – Daytime. . Weekend – Evening. The findings of this analysis are summarised in Figure 3.11.

20 5

2 15 8

10 18 5 16

5 10

0 Weekday Daytime Weekday Evening Weekend Daytime Weekend Evening

Uncontrolled Controlled

Figure 3.11: Car Parking Analysis – Key Findings

“Controlled” parking relates to members of staff or club officials who will work/volunteer at the facility (e.g. club volunteers, coaches, café workers, shop workers etc.) and whom we can dictate where they park. “Uncontrolled” parking is everyone else – all the users of the facility whom we can try and influence where they park via communications, notices etc. but ultimately we don’t have any real control over. It should be noted that this analysis presents what we believe to be a worst case, bounding position for five main reasons:

1) It estimates the maximum number of cars that will require parking at any given time based on the busiest periods. In reality the centre will not be this busy all of the time.

2) It is based on what we consider to be conservative assumptions and hence inflates car parking requirements.

3) It is likely to double account parking requirements and hence the number of cars will be less than predicted through this analysis; e.g. the members in the café are likely to have also played so their cars will have been counted twice. 39

4) Whilst the preference for indoor/outdoor facilities will flip through the seasons (e.g. covered courts will be first choice in winter and outdoor courts first choice in summer), as we are a busy club, we do not expect the usage of our three facilities to vary significantly throughout the seasons, all will remain busy based on the usage assumed within this analysis. We have based our assumptions which underpin this analysis on winter months when people are more likely to access via car due to inclement weather and reduced daylight hours. This analysis will therefore overestimate the number of additional cars in summer months when more people will be inclined to walk or cycle to the facility.

5) A key objective behind the development of our Overtoun Covered Courts is to encourage even more of our members to cycle to this facility than currently do to our Viewpark and Burnside courts. This has many advantages. It improves health and well-being, reduces carbon emissions and minimises parking burden. Section 3.7 describes how we will positively encourage users to access via bike by providing generous, quality cycle storage facilities. We will also explore further opportunities to encourage this through collaboration with CamGlen Bike Town (see Section 7) as well as looking at ways of incentivising users to access on foot or bike. We are confident these measures will further reduce the number of people who will access via car, and hence require parking, below the assumptions used to develop this parking study. It is also important to note that this analysis estimates the number of additional cars which will be parked as a result of our proposed facility. Clearly park users already travel via car and will use our facility. This kind of parking has not been considered within this analysis. Proposed Solution Recognising that parking is a major concern for local residents, as demonstrated in our Public Consultation (see Section 8), we want to take proactive steps to resolve this quandary quickly and move forward. We have therefore come up with what we hope will viewed as a sensible and pragmatic solution, as outlined below and illustrated in Appendix 2, which we believe is consistent/compliant with SLC parking standards/guidance: . As part of our project, and entirely at our cost, we will install ~14 additional car parking spaces in the Rutherglen Primary Care Centre (RPCC) by repurposing the existing grass verge that borders the neighbouring residential care home. This would cover the 10 spaces we require during weekday daytime and the 4 spaces that would be lost by us forming an entrance into our facility off this car park. . We would mark-out a safe pedestrian pathway leading from these spaces into our facility and, as part of this work, we would repaint all bays, markings etc. to tidy-up the overall car park. . We would use the RPCC car park in evenings and at weekends, where it provides way more spaces than we would ever need. . Whilst we could designate these additional bays “tennis centre only”, it would be our suggestion that they are undesignated allowing them to benefit the Health Centre when not used in quieter periods by us, thus helping to address, to a small degree, wider car parking issues in the local area. This solution will deliver the following benefits: . It keeps the entrance away from Overtoun Drive, reducing the impact of the facility on these residents. . It provides sufficient spaces for all additional cars thereby avoiding any additional parking in neighbouring streets.

. It establishes a main entrance to our facility off the RPCC car park, making it readily accessible to staff and patients of the centre, effectively creating a campus site. This will allow us to work in close partnership RPCC to deliver the considerable, mutual benefits described in Section 7.3.1.

3.13.6 Anti-Social Behaviour We are aware that there is a history of anti-social behaviour and vandalism within the park. We will deal with this in two ways, firstly through the design of the facility and secondly in how we manage it. We will design the facility to be robust and as vandal-proof as possible. The utilitarian nature of our facility lends itself to this. We will also install an alarm and CCTV to act as a deterrent. We believe the biggest deterrent to vandalism and anti-social behaviour will be in how we operate and manage the centre. Making the centre busy and active will discourage this kind of behaviour. Also, by making the facility open and welcoming to everyone across the local community (see Section 7), including various free activities, we hope that people will take pride in the facility, thereby providing a further deterrent. 40 Overall, by turning what is currently a secluded, isolated part of the park into a busy community hub which will be illuminated in hours of darkness, it will naturally discourage anti-social behaviour.

3.13.7 Ground Contamination There is a known issue of chromium contamination in this area of the park. Excavating and moving any of the ground would release this contamination potentially causing a health issue. As described in Section 3.2, it is proposed to float the new structure over the top of the existing ground using an appropriate barrier system where necessary, thereby avoiding the need to remove any contaminated spoil from the site and prevent any release of this contamination through our facility. 3.14 OVERALL SITE LAYOUT Pulling together all the different elements described above, Appendix 2 presents a proposed site plan for the facility, the key elements of which are: . The building tucked into the corner of the plot of grassland thereby minimising the amount of open space utilised. From our discussions with Grow73 and Overtoun Bowling Club (see Section 3.1) we believe this presents benefits to the security of their facilities. . The structure will be sited along the boundary with the RPCC to allow for the establishment of a main access off their car park, but set-back slightly to retain the mature trees along this boundary. . The main access into our facility will be off the RPCC car park to provide a solution to the parking concerns identified durting the public consultation and also create a campus-style site presenting considerable mutual benefits to RPCC and ourselves. . Upgrades to the paths linking our facility to the wider park, enhancing this area of the park and positively inviting and welcoming park users into our facility.

4. OPERATION & MANAGEMENT 4.1 OVERVIEW Rutherglen LTC will develop, build, operate, maintain and manage the new facility as an extension to our existing Viewpark and Burnside sites. More specifically, we will: . Lease the site from SLC for a minimum of 25 years for a “peppercorn” rent. We believe a peppercorn rent is wholly appropriate on the basis that as a “not for profit” community organisation (see Appendix 3), any costs we incur will directly hit what we can do to support the local community. Also, as described in Section 7, we are proposing to turn an underused piece of parkland into a vibrant community hub that everyone can enjoy, entirely at our cost. . Oversee and fund all site investigation work required to support the detailed design (see Phase 2 in Figure 1.3 in Section 1) and planning application. 41 . Apply for planning permission for the development. . Secure all funding to build the new facility. . Provide all necessary services required to support the proposed facility, liaising with all associated utility companies. . Oversee and manage all construction activities employing suitably qualified and experienced contractors to manage this on our behalf. . Operate and manage the facility as a third site complementing our existing Viewpark and Burnside facilities, on a not-for-profit basis, in accordance with our Articles of Association (see Appendix 3), and the “for members, by members” ethos (see Section 2, Point 11) that has been central to our success to date. . Use the new facility as an all-weather home where we can further expand and develop our hugely successful club, community and performance programmes, including community “pay-as-you-go” use and limited FREE slots to make tennis truly open to all. . Use the facility as a framework to build a vibrant community hub (see Section 7), liaising with other community groups, organisations etc. to allow them to benefit from the overall facility and run activities, events etc. that everyone can enjoy. We will facilitate, enable and champion this vision. . Maintain the facility and surrounding grounds, as described within the lease, to provide the first class facilities our members now expect and on which we are widely praised. This will include major refurbishment works through the facilities lifespan which will be funded from an appropriate sinking fund which we will maintain. . Insure the facility both in terms of the asset itself and public liability. . Lease the café (see Section 3.6) to a suitable individual/organisation who will create a friendly, welcoming, community atmosphere and offer a highly affordable menu which meets the needs of our members and wider community. To ensure the café is maintained as accessible and affordable as possible, and to make it the vibrant heartbeat of the facility, this will be leased via an appropriate service contract on a not-for-profit basis. Rutherglen LTC will manage this service contract and the service offered. This is described further in Section 7.2.1. . Lease the shop (see Section 3.7) to a suitable company. Given the commercial nature of this enterprise, this will be leased on a more competitive, commercial basis, but balanced against the cooperative culture that we see as critical to our success with the income from this rent being used to support our not-for-profit basis and thereby allow us to do even more to serve the local community. This is described further in Section 7.2.2. . Lease one of the converted shipping containers to a physiotherapist and sports injury clinic (see Section 3.8). Given the commercial nature of this enterprise, this will be leased on a more competitive, commercial basis, but balanced against the cooperative culture that we see as critical to our success with the income from this rent being used to support our not-for-profit basis and thereby allow us to do even more to serve the local community. This is described further in Section 7.2.3.

4.2 OPERATING HOURS As per our existing Viewpark and Burnside facilities, the facility will be available for use from 08:00 to 22:00, 7 days a week, 365 days per year. 4.3 ACCESS & USE Like our existing Viewpark and Burnside facilities, Rutherglen LTC members will be able to access the Overtoun Facility at any time during its operating hours using secure passcodes. The overall structure will be secured via a main door and the facilities within will also be secured. This is identical to our existing facilities. However, where the Overtoun Covered Courts differ from our existing facilities is that they will also be accessible to the general public and this is central to our vision. The facility will be opened for public access by: . The cafe operator – whenever the café is open, the facility will be open for public use. 42 . The shop operator - whenever the shop is open, the facility will be open for public use. . A member of our coaching team – whenever we are running group coaching, the facility will be open for public use. . Club volunteers, employees etc. – whenever there is a club official on-site, the facility will be open for public use. This provides a very flexible and versatile operating model allowing the facility to be open to the public for the majority of its operating hours and for the entire year, with the only exception being major public holidays like Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day etc. One of a number of side-benefits of operating the café and shop is that the overall facility will be staffed for the majority of its operating hours (and certainly for the core hours when park users would want to visit) allowing it to be opened to the general public at these times. Indeed, it will be a condition of the café and shop leases (and in return for the peppercorn rent charged on the former), that the operators will; . Play a key role in the operation of the facility. . Open-up and lock-up facility when first in/last out. . Welcome visitors and create a friendly, welcoming, community atmosphere. . Take court bookings. . Issue/loan equipment. This will allow us to provide a friendly, welcoming environment which the whole community can enjoy without incurring expensive operating costs. We see this community, cooperative ethos as key to the success of the overall project. 4.4 PARKING This is described in detail in Section 3.13.5. 4.5 SECURITY Although the proposed Overtoun facility will be covered, it will be configured and secured in a very similar way to our two existing outdoor facilities in that they both have a secure outdoor boundary (high fence at Viewpark/Burnside and main door/gate into structure at Overtoun) and then the facilities within (Clubhouses at Viewpark/Burnside and shipping container “village” at Overtoun) will be secured independently. So, in effect, our “outdoors indoors” vision for Overtoun makes access and security identical to our existing facilities. Whilst the “outdoors, indoors” concept and general utilitarian nature of the design will provide a very robust facility, we do need to be mindful of the more isolated location of this facility and greater asset value compared with our existing facilities. We are therefore likely to implement enhanced security arrangements at this location, e.g. CCTV, alarms etc. and this will be factored into the detailed design. 4.6 FACILITY MANAGEMENT As previously described, the facility will be simple and utilitarian in nature to keep costs down. This will also make it simple and easy to maintain.

We believe our “for members, by members” ethos founded on an enthusiastic pool of talented and committed volunteers (see Section 2, Point 11) can be readily extended to manage this facility. This allows us to deliver an exceptional facility for minimal cost meaning that we can provide a highly accessible and affordable community facility. The cooperative and collaborative culture and ethos which will be created by the café, shop and physio working in partnership with our club coaches and volunteers, for mutual benefit, will deliver even wider benefits in terms of ensuring smooth operation of the facility and creating a friendly welcoming environment, without incurring additional costs. However, we do recognise that this is a huge step for the club and we’re likely to have to take on a paid employee for the first time to help manage the extra workload. In addition to managing the new venue itself, four additional indoor courts will allow us to grow our membership to over 800 and more than double our existing coaching and community outreach programmes as described in Section 6. This presents a considerable administrative workload which this individual would deliver. Whilst this individual would work across all our three venues, they would be based at the Overtoun Covered Courts to enhance staffing levels at this location 43 to further enable and support public access. This provides a fantastic opportunity for someone in the local community to gain employment within a vibrant and exciting working environment. 4.7 OPERATING COSTS Section 5 presents a detailed breakdown of expected operating costs and how we will generate sufficient income to cover these costs to ensure the facility is fully sustainable over its life, including major refurbishment works which will be funded from a sinking fund we will accrue and maintain as part of our prudent financial management of the facility and wider club. 4.8 SUSTAINABILITY We want to minimise the impact of this proposed facility on the environment and will do this in a number of ways. As described in Section 3.2, the tennis courts will not be heated thereby avoiding the associated costs. We also propose a translucent roof to restrict use of lights to hours of darkness thereby minimising our electricity consumption.

We will take all reasonably practicable steps during detailed design (Stage 2 as illustrated in Figure 1.3) to minimise the carbon footprint of the facility both in terms of its design/construction as well as its operation. As part of this, we will explore the opportunity to fit solar panels on the roof to take advantage of the large footprint to offset electrical usage and potentially even become a net generator of electricity feeding the local grid with renewable energy.

5. FINANCE & COMMERCIAL This will be developed in Stage 2 if “Heads of Terms” can be agreed.

6. TENNIS DEVELOPMENT PLAN 6.1 WHERE ARE WE NOW? Working seamlessly with a hugely passionate and committed committee and team of volunteers, our Head Coach, Jonathan Wilcox, and his fantastic team have built an on-court programme that is the envy of tennis clubs across the UK. Here are a few examples of what we have achieved: . We provide an expansive Coaching Programme which offers something for all ages and abilities. Our current programme is presented in Appendix 4. This is the most expansive programme we can sensibly offer with our 7 existing courts, without compromising other element of club life. With all of these classes filled to capacity and many having a waiting list, this shows there is considerable potential to expand this programme if we had more space. . In five years we’ve grown the number of juniors in our club programme from 40 to 235. 45 . Our thriving adult programme has created a well-trodden pathway for adults to go from beginners to team players.

. We are one of only a few, if any, clubs in Scotland to offer a fully integrated performance programme to our most talented and committed juniors which encompasses performance coaching, technical sessions, tactical and mental elements, strength and conditioning training and tournament support. This programme is illustrated in Appendix 5. We have 30 players committed to this programme. . Our programme incorporates an Additional Support Class including wheelchair tennis . Over the last 3 years, our McDonald’s sponsored Schools Programme has given over 2,000 local school children the chance to play tennis for free, many of whom have since joined our programme and play on a regular basis. . Our Schools Programme continues to go from strength to strength benefitting from increased sponsorship in response to the demonstrable success we have achieved. We now work actively with 14 local primary schools as well as providing coaching in a local Additional Support Needs (ASN) High School. . One of the big highlights of our calendar is the one-day competition which forms the finale of our annual Schools Tennis Festival (see Appendix 6); a week of free tennis for P3/P4 children. . We partner with local community organisations and youth groups to provide free tennis in some of Glasgow’s most deprived areas. . We have built a hugely passionate, committed and capable coaching team comprising:

Jonny Wilcox Cedric Decuyper Scott Docherty Andy Cornwell Head Coach Lead Coach Assistant Coach Strength & Conditioning Coach LTA Level 4 LTA Level 3 LTA Level 2

Yes, we’ve made mistakes along the way, but these have only served to sharpen our focus and refine what we do to achieve better and better results. We now believe we have established a winning formula to grow and develop tennis within a community club setting. All of these efforts have been recognised through the following awards:

. Jonny Wilcox – Tennis West of Scotland Club Coach of the Year 2016. . Jonny Willcox – Tennis Scotland Coach of the Year 2016. . Jonny Willcox – British Tennis Coach of the Year 2016. . Jonny Willcox – Sport Scotland Young Coach of the Year 2017. . Cedric Decuyper – Cambuslang & Rutherglen Sports Council Coach of the Year 2017. . Rutherglen LTC - Tennis Scotland Club of the Year 2016 & 2017. 6.2 JUST THINK WHAT WE COULD DO WITH COVERED COURTS! Our plans to build covered courts are big, they’re certainly bold and many people will say we’re bonkers. However, if you look at where we’ve come from and what we’ve achieved, and ignore the preconceived limitations of what a Scottish tennis club is supposed to do, we firmly believe they are a natural and achievable next step. 46 Just like we grew into our Burnside courts, we are now ready to grow into four more covered courts. We see this very much as evolution rather than revolution. We have the know-how, drive and formula to make a huge success of this venture and generate huge returns in terms of growing the game of tennis – not just within the local area, but within the Scottish tennis community by smashing the glass ceiling that restricts the growth of our clubs, hopefully inspiring others to follow suit, benefitting the game on a national level. There are five key pillars to our plan to use these covered courts to get more people playing tennis, more often and each of these are described in the following sub-sections. Again, this is nothing revolutionary. These are just a natural extension to what we currently do, but just take advantage of the fact that they give us more space and allow us to deliver tennis year round and in any weather.

6.2.1 Grow the Club As illustrated in Figure 1.1, we have a proven track record of growing participation in tennis through membership, having increased this from less than 100 to ~440 in less than ten years. There is no sign of this slowing and so, simply by expanding into four more courts, we will gain the additional space to continue this sustainable growth. Moreover, with these courts being covered, we see this growth accelerating as the opportunity to play in all weathers, on a year round basis, will attract a whole new demographic. It is impossible to quantify how many people are put off playing tennis because it is not a sport they can enjoy on a year-round basis when limited to outdoor play. This is evidenced by the findings of our public consultation (see Section 8) which shows a very high level of interest in usage of the covered tennis courts, with 48% of respondents overall indicating that they would be interested in using the courts as a member of RLTC and 6% as a member of another tennis club. 51% indicated they would be interested in using the tennis courts on a pay-as-you-play basis. It is noted that 28% of those that were not members of RLTC indicated an interest in using the courts as a member of the club and 62% of people in this category in using the courts on a pay-as-you-play basis, suggesting substantial potential demand for both types of usage. Expressed in another way: . 183 respondents identified themselves as members of Rutherglen LTC, yet 318 respondents stated that they would be interested in using the facility as a member of the club. This suggests that there are 135 potential new members within this survey group. . 338 respondents stated that they would be interested in playing tennis on a "pay-as-you-go" basis. This demonstrates that the opening of these covered courts will attract a whole new demographic of members which will accelerate our growth. In addition, the considerable demand for pay-as-you-go use will, in itself, build a vibrant community tennis scene. Also, with our strong track record of converting casual users of our facilities into full members due to the quality of the opportunities offered and the affordability of our membership packages, this will further accelerate our membership growth. With seven outdoor, floodlit courts, we have capacity for ~420 members. Four more covered courts would extend this capacity by a further 300-400 to 700-800. This doesn’t faze us. With our formula we believe we will deliver this. All of the things we do to attract people into our club (open weekends, open days, schools festival, community events, social events, open tournaments, publicity, promotions etc.) and retain them long-term (providing lots of opportunities for play, competition and socialising within wonderful facilities and a friendly, welcoming and

supportive culture) as summarised and illustrated under our “secrets of our success” in Section 2, we will simply expand and extend to fill the available space. Our Coaching Programme will expand to suit with more classes across all three venues. Our social events will get bigger to serve our increased membership. Again, this is not new. From opening our Burnside courts in November 2017, we have grown membership from 240 to 440 members and so have a proven track record of expanding into a new venue and making full use of the additional space to grow membership on a sustainable basis.

6.2.2 Expand and enhance our Community Programme Our McDonald’s sponsored schools tennis programme, which we deliver to 13 local primary schools, in partnership with South Lanarkshire Active Schools, is one of our greatest achievements. What we do for these schools is not limited by funding or enthusiasm to do more, it’s limited by the weather. It’s just not conducive for children to walk round to play on outdoor courts in winter months. With covered courts we’ll be able to deliver this programme on a year round basis. So, instead of tennis being a seasonal activity for the children, it will be something they can enjoy throughout the year. We’ve had great success in transitioning kids from 47 this initiative into our club and performance programmes, but getting children playing on a year round basis will get even more children committed to tennis and involved in our programme. This will increase membership, not just through the new children, but their families also. One of the most satisfying things about this initiative is that we’ve been able to attract parents into the club with their children. This has many advantages. It makes it more likely that the children will stick in the sport (the adults practice with and encourage the children), it gets more adults playing, expanding our social tennis activities and teams, which provides more playing opportunities for our other members, and it expands the pool of volunteers which is fundamental to our success. The covered courts will allow us to double or even treble this programme and we are confident that, given the success of this initiative, we can secure the increased sponsorship to deliver this. So, everything is in place to deliver an expanded year-round tennis programme to local schools absolutely free, we just need the covered courts to provide this. Similarly, covered tennis courts will allow us to expand our community programme. All of the community organisations identified in Section 7 are keen to benefit from the facility directly through coach-led tennis sessions or our coaching team delivering training to their staff to run sessions themselves. However, we will not be constrained by existing relationships. We believe we have only just touched the surface of the community groups who could benefit from this facility and, if successful in securing “Heads of Terms”, we will work during Stage 2 to identify other groups and work with all interested parties to build a vibrant community programme. Our expanded community programme will not be limited to organised groups. We will make the courts available to the general public on a pay-as-you-go basis, including slots available entirely free on a first-come- first-served basis to make tennis truly accessible to all. We believe there is considerable appetite amongst the local community for affordable, “pay-as-you-go” tennis due to the complete loss of traditional public park courts over the last couple of decades. These covered courts will provide this opportunity on a year-round basis. Our public consultation (see Section 8) has shown that there is considerable appetite for such opportunities - 338 responders stated that they would be interested in playing tennis on a “pay-as-you-go” basis. This demand alone will build a vibrant community tennis scene.

6.2.3 Expand and enhance our Performance Programme Covered courts will greatly enhance our performance programme by providing a reliable high performance training environment throughout the year. This will give our most talented and dedicated players a facility within their local community where they can work hard to reach their full potential. It will avoid players having to travel or move away from the Rutherglen area to access the indoor facilities they need to become elite tennis plyers, as is currently the case. In addition, it will give us the extra space to accommodate the expansion which will naturally result from the expanded community and club programmes. This is where our performance players came from, so if we have an expanded community and club programme an expanded development programme will naturally follow.

6.2.4 Establish a central hub to promote the game of tennis across South Lanarkshire We’re very proud to have established ourselves as the premier tennis club in South Lanarkshire and recognise that with this comes a responsibility to work with neighbouring clubs to promote the game of tennis across the region.

We want to use our new covered courts to serve as a central hub to promote, grow and develop the game of tennis in South Lanarkshire for the benefit of all local clubs. We have written to all SL Clubs to advise them of our plans, seek their input, advise them of the route-map we intend to follow (see Figure 1.3) and give them a heads-up that if we do get “Heads of Terms” agreement, we’ll be looking to engage proactively with them to progress these plans as part of Stage 2 to hopefully benefit all participating clubs. With the construction of our Overtoun Covered Courts, our aim is to make tennis in the local community more accessible. Part of this vision involves bringing the other local tennis clubs together more often in order to make them stronger and enhance their offering to their members as a result. We strongly believe that the way to support neighbouring clubs is not to offer allocations of court time to their members or coaching teams. This will hugely dilute the impact the facility could have on tennis in the region. Yes it would benefit the existing members of these clubs, but it will not deliver our overarching objective of getting more people playing tennis more often. 48 Instead, the facility will form a hub within which activities can be organised and delivered to enhance all of the clubs’ offerings to their membership and thereby develop the game of tennis on a much wider basis. Some examples of this approach include: . A consistent, year-round home for the South Lanarkshire Development Squads (for the most promising junior players at each club). . Hosting Tennis Leaders Courses and Level 1 Coaching Courses, creating the opportunity for local people to upskill themselves and stay in the sport as a result – this will help other local clubs retain members into young adulthood. . Running adult competitions monthly over winter to provide local indoor competition for local team players. . Host and run junior match play events for local players to give the opportunity for junior members of other clubs to compete locally all year round, helping to keep them in the sport. The above activities are only a few examples of the types of activities we can run that will enhance other local clubs’ memberships in a more substantial way than merely allocating a proportion of court time to each club in order for a small number of their members to benefit. We are fully committed to working with local clubs during Stage 2 in order to benefit from what will be a fantastic facility for tennis in the local area and make each club stronger in their own right.

6.2.5 Expand what we do to support Scottish Tennis We’re certainly not parochial in our outlook. We recognise that we have received lots of funding and support from the LTA and Tennis Scotland to help us get to where we are and that, with this, comes with an obligation for us to put something back into the wider Scottish tennis community. Here are few examples of where we currently do this: . We run the Lanarkshire Open, a hugely popular event in the Tennis Scotland competition calendar. . We allowed a number of performance players to train on our courts whilst their regular indoor facilities were closed during COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, including Mia Lumsden and Gordon Reid. . We allowed some Glasgow based Regional Player Development Centre (RPDC) players to access our performance programme whilst their programme scaled back after lockdown. . We have hosted a number of community events as part of Tennis Scotland’s programme to promote and capitalise on the publicity around the Murray Trophy. Four more covered courts will allow us to do even more in this regard, providing an affordable and accessible venue for: . National training camps. . Regional/National tournaments. . Tennis Scotland coach/workforce training. More importantly, this venue will be run solely for the purposes of promoting the game of tennis and will not be at the mercy of wider economic pressures thereby providing a long term venue Tenis Scotland can rely on.

However, just like with other local tennis clubs, we will be very careful not to simply make this facility available to serve existing players. We want to use this facility to grow the game of tennis. 6.3 TRIANGLE OF OPPORTUNITY Our recipe for success boils down to three key ingredients; club, community and performance. We believe we are unique amongst clubs in Scotland in offering this “triangle of opportunity” (see Figure 6.1), certainly in terms of the scale delivered. Community

49 Performance Community

Club Performance Club

Figure 6.1: Triangle of Opportunity We see the challenge faced not being in filling these additional covered courts, but in finding the right balance between these three ingredients. If blended with consideration and care, they complement each other brilliantly, delivering benefits way beyond the sum of their individual parts; . A strong community programme gives hundreds of people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities the chance to try tennis. Those who catch the bug feed into our club programme and those who are really talented and committed feed through into our performance programme. . A strong club programme attracts lots of members, which in turn creates lots of playing opportunities for all ages and abilities, establishes teams at all competitive levels, and a social scene to suit all tastes and interests. This creates a critical mass which attracts even more members and so the cycle continues. A vibrant, healthy and welcoming club environment encourages those accessing our facilities from the community to join the club. Those members who want to take their tennis to the next level can join our performance programme. . A strong performance programme attracts more members into the club. It drives up standards, further attracting more members and it inspires those accessing our facilities from the community to take up the game or simply to come to our facilities to watch and interact. Very fortuitously, a fundamental strength of this “triangle of opportunity” is that the three elements all complement each other brilliantly in terms of court utilisation, or at least can be moulded to deliver this. The community programme will largely take place during the day, the performance programme largely in early mornings, late afternoon and early evening and club activities mid to late evenings and weekends. By harnessing this strength, we can deliver all three elements through far fewer courts than if there were delivered in isolation or in pairs and we can maximise court usage. In very simple terms, it allows us to deliver best possible results in terms of growing and developing the game of tennis, from the investment required to build the facility. 6.4 WHY OVERTOUN PARK, WHY RUTHERGLEN LTC? As illustrated in Figure 6.3, there are 31 indoor tennis courts within 12 miles of Rutherglen, so the obvious question is; “Is there really a need for covered tennis courts in Overtoun Park?”

No Name No. of Courts Dist. from RLTC Offering  RLTC – Viewpark Courts 4x Outdoor Community  RLTC – Burnside Courts 3x Outdoor Club 4x Indoor Performance RLTC – Proposed Overtoun Covered Courts  2x Padel 6x Outdoor Club Newlands Tennis Club 3.5 miles  4x Indoor Performance  Glasgow Club – Gorbals Tennis Centre 4x Indoor 3.8 miles Community Community Glasgow Cub – Scotstoun Tennis Centre 8x Indoor 9.5 miles  Performance 3x Outdoor David Lloyd Club – Hamilton 11.7 miles Club  6x Indoor 6x Outdoor David Lloyd Club – Renfrew 11.8 miles Club  9x Indoor

Figure 6.3: Location of surrounding indoor tennis courts and nature of offering We think the answer to this is a resounding yes on the basis that: . 15 of these indoor courts are within a David Lloyd club. These are very expensive and exclusive private members clubs which are not accessible and affordable to the general population. They clearly do not exist to serve the wider community. That is no way a criticism of them; they are extremely good at what they do, but exist for a very different reason to us. . Whilst Newlands is a more traditional tennis club in that it is run by members, for members (although far more commercial than us, with employed staff, bar, catering etc.), it does not offer the expansive community offering we are proposing for Overtoun Park. Also, being located in Glasgow, even if it did offer these opportunities, it would not be accessible to the community groups we want to serve (see Section 7). . The “Glasgow Club” facilities at the Gorbals and Scotstoun offer community tennis but these do not feed into a club or performance environment (although these venues are used by Tennis Scotland to run their performance training) and hence do not yield the benefits described in Section 6.3. In addition, they are part of multi-sport facilities and so are not managed by people passionate about tennis and are at the mercy of wider commercial pressures which regularly priorities the use of the space for other more profitable sports. As a result they only make a very limited contribution to the growth and development of the game of tennis.

. Only Rutherglen LTC offers the complete “triangle of opportunity” through integrated community, club and performance dimensions, which we see as being critical to the establishment of a thriving tennis facility, as described in Section 6.3. . It is us who have created the appetite for tennis within the local community through all our hard work, passion, dedication and commitment, and it is us that have established the recipe for success that is described in Section 6.3. Yes, others may consider that there are higher priority areas for indoor tennis courts in Scotland, but we are Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Club, this is our home, and we have the ability, ambition and drive to make this a huge success. For us there is no doubt whatsoever – Overtoun Park is the perfect location for covered tennis courts for these very reasons. The other obvious question which must be answered is;

“Is a community club the right organisation to run a facility like this?” 51 We accept that our proposal breaks the mould. We are not a council or education facility who have hitherto attracted the support and funding from Tennis Scotland, the LTA and sportscotland to build such facilities in Scotland. However, we feel very strongly that our identity and this novel approach should work to our advantage. Indeed, we see this identity as encapsulating why we believe we can achieve success in terms of promoting and developing the game of tennis in Scotland to a much greater extent than these other ventures on the basis that: . Only a community club can deliver the “triangle of opportunity” described in Section 6.3. . Only a not-for-profit club driven by passionate, committed volunteers can deliver the low-cost, accessible, inclusive and welcoming environment and culture that is fundamental to the success of this vision. . Only an organisation with the sole purpose of promoting the development of tennis will ensure that the facility delivers on this vision throughout its life without succumbing to other pressures. We are that organisation and we have the track record, ability and ambition to deliver on this vision. Therefore, rather than the question being; “why Overtoun Park and why Rutherglen LTC?”, given everything we have done and the vision we have for our future, we actually think this question should be turned round; “Give us one good reason why not!”

7. COMMUNITY HUB 7.1 OVERVIEW Section 6 describes how we will use this facility as an all-weather home where we can further expand and develop our hugely successful community, club and performance tennis programmes, including community “pay-as-you-go” use and some free slots available on a “first-come-first-served” basis to make tennis truly accessible to all. However, whilst the driving force behind this proposed facility is tennis, we see it being much, much more than this. Tennis provides the structure on which we want to build a vibrant hub of activity that the whole community can enjoy, including; . Visitors/spectators encouraged and warmly welcomed. 52 . Café and social space open to the public. . Toilets available for public use. . FREE Table Tennis, Table Football and Pool. . FREE Wi-Fi. . Community cinema showing classic films and big sporting action. . Flexible/functional spaces available for community use (dance, fitness, yoga, exercise, fitness, art classes etc., meetings etc.). . A friendly home from home for other sport clubs to use, enhancing their offering to their members. . A tennis shop and racket restringing services meeting the huge demand for this in the local area. . A physiotherapy and sports injury clinic. The size of the overall building is dictated by the size of the tennis courts and headroom required, so there is ample space to accommodate all of these facilities, and more, without growing the overall building. It therefore provides a framework for a vibrant and diverse community hub to grow and thrive. This is key to our plans and we want to reach out to all community organisations who could make use of this space and facility and do everything we possibly can to incorporate their requirements and aspirations within the constraints of the project. We want to create a lively hub where people come to exercise, socialise and relax. The busier it is the better it is for our club. The healthier our club, the more we can do for the local community. We see this as very much a symbiotic relationship where a not-for-profit tennis club can help the community and vice versa. Many experts are forecasting that in a post coronavirus society more people will work from home and will be looking to use local amenities and facilities. This will change communities and neighbourhoods. We see our plans as being very much complementary to this “new normal” – a place to work, meet, eat, exercise and socialise right in the heart of our local community. 7.2 COMMUNITY BENEFITS The following sub-sections describe the community benefits the proposed facility will bring, beyond tennis. These are certainly not pipe-dreams. We have held detailed discussions with a range of like-minded individuals and organisations to shape these plans, as described below.

7.2.1 Community Café, Social Space and free Wi-Fi We have received an expression of interest from Whisk to run the Community Café as described in Section 3.6. Their outline proposal is presented as Appendix 7. In return for a peppercorn lease, they will play an active role in the management of the facility, providing a warm, friendly welcome to everyone who visits the centre and help reduce our operating costs to allow us to do even more for the local community. In addition, they will ensure that their menu is affordable and healthy and meets the needs of the facility users. They also have lots of great ideas about engaging with the community through regular events, including: . Monthly tea dances for pensioners. . Monthly themed “street food” evenings coinciding with the community cinema.

. Food tasting evenings. . Cookery classes. They are also keen to use this opportunity to train adults with learning disabilities as well as provide an opportunity for people to volunteer. As described in Section 7.3.2, produce from the neighbouring Grow73 community garden will be routed directly into our community café creating a very healthy, sustainable and ethical food chain. Free WiFi will be available throughout the café area and social space. We think this will be very popular with the local community in a post COVID-19 working environment where more people will be working from home but will be looking for a homely, public space to work and socialise nearby. We would also intend to provide a few free to use internet connected PCs to allow those who don’t have computer access at home to use basic facilities in a safe and supportive environment. 53 7.2.2 Tennis Shop and Restringing Service We have received an expression of interest from String Sports (see Appendix 8) who run a tennis shop and racket restringing service out of the David Lloyd Club at Anniesland. They are interested in renting one of the shipping containers in our “village” to run a small franchise to this operation. This will provide income to the centre to help cover our operating costs allowing us to deliver even more benefits to the community. In addition, as there are no current, similar shops on the south side of Glasgow, this facility/service will be hugely convenient for our members and the wider South Lanarkshire tennis community as well as the broader Glasgow south area. As described in their letter, the owners of String Sports are immersed in the ethos of community tennis clubs. They are therefore happy and willing to take on wider roles in the management of the facility in return for the opportunity to extend their business into this area of Glasgow. This will help us further reduce our operating costs, not to mention further establish the cooperative culture we see as absolutely fundamental in creating a thriving community hub.

7.2.3 Physio/Sports Injury Clinic We have received an expression of interest from Karen Gibson a highly qualified and experienced Physiotherapist to establish a small clinic within the centre (see Appendix 9), utilising one of the shipping containers within the “village” as well as some of the open floor space for rehab, exercises etc. We believe this would be a hugely popular and convenient service to our members but also the wider community. Like the Tennis Shop, it will attract additional footfall into our centre further building the busy community hub we are trying to achieve. Karen also buys into the cooperative community vision we have for this facility and is keen to support the wider management, providing similar benefits to those realised from the Community Café and Tennis Shop. We believe these three operations, along with our coaching team and volunteers, would establish a critical mass for a thriving community hub and a catalyst for other enterprises to spring up within our facility.

7.2.4 Resident Strength & Conditioning Coach We have received an expression of interest from Andy Cornwell a qualified and experienced Strength and Conditioning (S&C) Coach to base his start-up business within the centre (see Appendix 10) to offer S&C support to our performance players, general members, affiliated clubs (e.g. Cambuslang Harriers), the general public and his own clients. We would allocate him one of the shipping containers within the “village” as well as some of the open floor space for gym equipment, exercises etc. This will further attract footfall into our centre further building the busy community hub we are trying to achieve. Andy also buys into the cooperative community vision we have for this facility and is keen to support the wider management, providing similar benefits to those realised from the Community Café, Tennis Shop and Physio/Sports Injury Clinic.

7.2.5 Public Toilets There are no public toilets in Overtoun Park. We would make our toilets open to the public to benefit the local community whilst also attracting people into our facility to engage their interest. These would include fully accessible toilets as well as baby-changing facilities.

7.2.6 Free Table Tennis/Table Football/Pool We will scatter a number of table tennis tables, pool tables and table football tables in free spaces around the facility which will be entirely free to use. These will be very popular with users of the facility but will also attract people in from the wider park/neighbourhood, again helping build the thriving community hub we’re striving

to achieve. We recognise the strong community appetite for free activities for kids to enjoy and we believe this offering will be very attractive to them. It will give them a home from home to enjoy, socialise and be proud of.

7.2.7 Functional space for games/classes/events The area around the shipping container “village”, the large elevated viewing deck and the padel tennis courts will provide flexible spaces for fitness, exercise, yoga classes etc., as well as various other activities such as table tennis, basketball and carpet bowls/curling, with equipment wheeled-out for use on one of these areas.

7.2.8 Flexible spaces for community use Within the shipping container “village”, we propose to include a number of enclosed spaces we can use for training, meetings etc. We recognise there is a lack of such facilities freely available within the local community and so would make these available to local organisations (see Section 7.3).

7.2.9 Community Cinema 54 Within the large, open plan café area and social space (see Section 7.2.1), we would propose to fit a pull down cinema screen and ceiling mounted projector, allowing us to show big screen sporting action as well as a monthly community cinema. This is another example of how we want to open the facility up to as many people as possible of all ages, interests etc.

7.2.10 Cycle Storage The secure, covered bike storage facility (see Section 3.11) will be open for public use, encouraging more people to cycle to the park as well as the neighbouring health centre (see Section 7.3.1).

7.2.11 Wider Park Development With the construction of our proposed facility involving a considerable amount of ground works, there is the opportunity to use this project as a catalyst to enhance the surrounding green space. Ideas include: . Network of paths around facility benefitting dog-walkers, joggers etc. . Trees, planting, landscaping etc. around the facility to enhance the visual appeal of this area of the park. . Outdoor seating area for café users in nicer weather. . Outdoor table tennis. . External lighting to illuminate surrounding paths to improve safety and security and thereby attract people into this underused area of the park in dark hours. . Improve drainage within the remaining green space which blights its wider use. In so doing, there is the opportunity to improve the quality of the surface (at present there are lots of ruts and hollows and some remains of the old tennis courts). . Providing a spur off our electrical system to establish an electrical supply within the park. Whilst clearly we cannot fund all of this wider work, there are economies of scale which could be achieved if this work is blended into our plans and activities. We are willing and committed to work with any interested parties to deliver these wider benefits during Stage 2 (see Figure 1.3). 7.3 COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS As previously described, we want this facility to act as a framework for a vibrant and diverse community hub to grow and thrive. This is key to our plans and we have held detailed and productive discussions with a range of community groups and organisations who will be able to benefit from this facility, as described in the following sub-sections.

7.3.1 Rutherglen Primary Care Centre With our proposed facility backing onto the Rutherglen Primary Care Centre (RPCC), and our proposal to access the site off their car park, we see considerable mutual benefits from close and active collaboration, for example: . RPCC staff would be warmly welcomed to use our community café for a sit-in lunch, takeaway or coffee break. . We could organise lunchtime tennis sessions, exercise classes etc. for their staff to enjoy.

. Patients would also be able to enjoy our facilities before or after a visit to the health centre. . We would actively encourage staff and patients of RPCC to use our covered cycle storage to support the wider drive for sustainable travel within the local area. There are huge health benefits in the activities that we will be promoting within our facility. For example, there is a lot of research which shows that table tennis is hugely beneficial in helping those with Parkinson’s disease or suffering from Alzheimer’s. We are therefore very keen to make our facilities available to the NHS through the “social prescribing” initiative being trialled under NHS Lanarkshire’s “Green Health Initiative”. This idea was mooted in our discussions with SL Leisure (see Section 8.6), as was the suggestion that they could locate one of their coordinators within our facility to maximise the benefit this relationship could deliver to the community. We therefore have the opportunity to create a range of opportunities for people to get exercise within a safe and supportive environment on the doorstep of the primary health centre and this is something we would be extremely keen to progress with relevant stakeholders during Stage 2 (see Figure 1.3). 55 7.3.2 Grow73 Grow73 are working to convert three of the bowling greens within Overtoun Park Bowling Club into community gardens and hence would be our direct neighbour. We are working closely with them to help them deliver their vision and are progressing a number of ideas which will take advantage of our conjoined facilities and our shared ethos of encouraging community engagement and activity and promoting a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. These ideas include: . Produce from the community garden being routed directly into our community café creating a very healthy, sustainable and ethical food chain. . Our community café will incorporate a “Veg Box” allowing visitors to help themselves to fresh fruit and vegetables, providing a controlled, managed outlet for their produce. . Installation of a large water bowser next to the downpipe in the corner of our building nearest Grow73 into which rainwater will be diverted. This will provide a source of recycled water which Grow73 can use for irrigation. . We could provide a spur off our electrical system to provide some lighting in the community gardens. A letter of support for our proposal from Grow73 is presented as Appendix 11. 7.3.3 Glasgow South Table Tennis Cub We have held initial exploratory talks with Glasgow South Table Tennis Club who are interested in using this facility to expand and extend the reach of their activities, getting more people playing the game. It will give them an additional venue to grow their activities while also extending their reach into the Rutherglen area which does not currently have a table tennis club affiliated to Table Tennis Scotland. Their expression of interest is presented as Appendix 12. One of the paddle courts could potentially provide a suitable area for structured table tennis sessions to take place with 5 tables in play for high performance and up to 9 for social play. Having this space available for a table tennis club 2 or 3 evenings a week would provide a terrific facility to build up a local table tennis club in Rutherglen whilst also presenting a number of additional advantages: . It will inspire users of our facility to take up the game and get more involved. . It would provide a route and opportunity for social players to get more involved in their sport. . It would increase footfall into our facility helping build the vibrant community hub that people will want to visit and use. . It will bring committed, passionate volunteers who share our ethos into the facility, enhancing the cooperative culture we see as being key to our success. . It will extend the range of activities and opportunities we can provide to local residents to improve mental and physical health through the “Grown Health Initiative” as described in Section 7.3.1. There is a wealth of medical evidence that supports playing table tennis is very effective in improving both mental and physical health, particularly in the older population.

7.3.4 Cambuslang Harriers We have held initial exploratory talks with Cambuslang Harriers who are interested in using this facility to expand and extend the reach of their activities. They would base some of their training sessions at our facility using it as a venue to meet, change and securely store equipment before a park/road run, and then shower/change and socialise afterwards. In addition, there is the opportunity for their athletes to use some of the functional, flexible floor space and equipment for strength and conditioning work. Their expression of interest is presented as Appendix 13. Like the Table Tennis Club, this would deliver advantages to both parties. For us it will further increase footfall and further attract committed, passionate volunteers who can support us in delivering this exciting community vision. For Cambuslang Harriers, it will increase their reach and membership. Indeed, many of our members are very keen runners and the opportunity to train with an organised group on our doorstep would be very attractive. This would be of particular benefit to our elite junior players who could benefit greatly from the input and support of qualified running coaches as part of their strength and development training. This relationship exemplifies the integrated and collaborative sports hub we are striving to build. 56

7.3.5 Local Bowling Clubs There is ample space within the facility to roll-out a strip of carpet to create a single rink allowing neighbouring bowling clubs to practice over the winter months. We are in talks with both Burnside Bowling Club, who we have great relationship with as landlords of our Burnside Courts, and Overtoun Bowling Club directly next door to our proposed facility. Like the table tennis and athletics club, this further extends our reach into the community and keeps the facility busier more often. A busy centre generates more revenue, is more attractive for people to visit and is more secure and safer.

7.3.6 ‘Healthy n Happy’ We have met with Brendan Rooney, Chief Executive at ‘Healthy n Happy’, and have both been surprised by the extent of the overlap between our respective purposes and objectives. Our purpose is to promote the game of tennis within the community of Rutherglen giving as many people as possible the opportunity to enjoy the enormous health benefits of the game. This aligns entirely with Healthy n Happy’s objective of making the residents of Rutherglen and Cambuslang the healthiest and happiest in Scotland. We have identified a number of ways that Healthy n Happy can benefit from our facilities, both directly, in accessing the activities we are promoting, but also indirectly in using our facility as a space to run their own activities.

Healthy n Happy are very much supportive of our plans (see Appendix 14) and are keen to work with us to deliver these wider community benefits and we look forward to exploring these in detail with them in Stage 2 (see Figure 1.3). 7.3.7 ‘Enable’ We have approached the local charity ‘Enable’ which supports adults with special needs within the local community. They have identified a number of benefits our facility would deliver to their group, including: . A safe and supportive destination for them to visit, people watch, enjoy a coffee and perhaps a game of table tennis. From our discussions with Mary Cassidy their Chairperson, this is hugely important to them and there is a dearth of similar facilities in the local area. . A venue for them to use to host their group meetings and activities which can be readily scheduled around other activities to help create a busy community hub throughout the week. . An opportunity for their members to volunteer to gain a sense of belonging. As an entirely voluntary organisation, we have first-hand experience of the enormous benefits of volunteering both to the volunteer and the people they are benefitting. We have a host of opportunities available for this and believe we can help give Enable group members a real sense of purpose and achievement that will be hugely beneficial to their own health and well-being as well as help make our facility better.

Enable are very much supportive of our plans (see Appendix 14) and are keen to work with us to deliver these wider community benefits and we look forward to exploring these in detail with them in Stage 2 (see Figure 1.3). 7.3.8 Rutherglen Bankhead Tenants and Residents Association We have approached the Rutherglen Bankhead Tenants and Residents Association to make them aware of our plans and advise them that we are keen to meet with them to explore how their group could benefit from the

facility both directly, in terms of the activities offered, but also indirectly, in terms of using our facilities for their own activities. They discussed our plans at their committee meeting at the beginning of September and have written to us to advise that they are fully supportive of our plans and want to work with us during Stage 2 so that they can play their part in building the vibrant community hub we have in mind. Their letter of support is included in Appendix 14. 7.3.9 CamGlen Bike Town and BMX Track Our public consultation (see Section 8) has shown that there is considerable pride in the community for the BMX track adjacent to our proposed site and a strong appetite to see this upgraded to encourage its wider use. Whilst we clearly don’t have the knowledge and experience to take this project on, and our task to develop our facility will be hard enough without the extra workload and funding required to deliver this, we do very much recognise that our project could be a catalyst for the regeneration of this facility and a hub to support its wider use. In particular, if the work required to upgrade the BMX track was combined with our works, then 57 economies of scale could be realised delivering savings to both projects. Also, with our facility including secure bike storage, changing facilities, a café and social space, it would serve as an attractive base to promote and encourage the use of the upgraded BMX track. We have held very preliminary discussions with CamGlen Bike Town and SL Leisure and Culture who share our thinking on this and the benefits it would deliver. We would be very keen, therefore, to work with all interested parties during Stage 2 (see Figure 1.3) to use our project as a cyclist for this wider development, thereby further expanding our community sporting hub.

7.3.10 Friends of Overtoun Park Recognising the great work they do to look after and promote Overtoun Park within the local community, we were very keen to make Friends of Overtoun Park (FOP) the first community group we engaged with once we’d received the endorsement from our own membership to pursue these plans. We met with their Chairperson in our Viewpark Clubhouse on Wednesday 19th February 2020. We were surprised to hear that our proposal was not being viewed favourably and frustrated that the concerns expressed were largely based on an incorrect understanding of our plans, the nature and objectives of our organisation and the lease arrangement we are pursuing with South Lanarkshire Council. Whilst we tried to tackle these concerns, it was apparent that they were based on quite fixed and firm views. It also become apparent that the views being expressed were not necessarily representative of the wider FOP group. With this in mind, we offered to present our plans in detail to FOP and they very kindly gave us a platform to do this at their next meeting in Stonelaw Church on Tuesday 3rd March 2020. In addition to presenting our plans, we tabled an open invitation to engage with them to use this project as a catalyst to help them progress their wider plans for the park and indeed use our facility as a base for their operations and activities. We advised that we saw FOP as a key spoke in the community hub we are trying to achieve and that we very much hoped they would get involved in this capacity. This was a much more positive discussion than our first meeting and our presentation seemed to be well received by all in attendance, as was our invitation to engage together to support our respective plans. We sent the slides we presented at this meeting to the Chairperson after the meeting so that they could be shared with the group, and invited them to get back to us with any further thoughts, issues, ideas, concerns etc. We also reiterated our desire to sit down with the group to go through these plans in detail once they’d had a chance to fully digest. Despite following up on this request on a number of occasions, and providing updates on our evolving plans, we received no response. We also asked them to share our online survey (see Section 8) via their channels to ensure we fully tested public opinion, but this was also not acknowledged. Whilst disappointed with their lack of engagement, we decided to leave things be and focus on the other community organisations who were keen to explore our plans with us. As a community organisation ourselves entirely reliant on the support of volunteers, who themselves are busy people with a wide range of conflicting priorities, we are very much aware that there are times when you just don’t have capacity to get involved in new things. However, when we were made aware that they had launched their own on-line survey we felt we had to take action. Whilst we would have preferred for FOP to have actively promoted our own, independent survey as widely as possible, as has been done by other local groups, we fully respected their right to seek to ascertain the views of the local community in an independent and objective manner. However, we felt that the material they put into the public domain in support of their survey was inaccurate in a number of respects, omitted much important detail, and appeared framed in such a way as to encourage particular negative responses.

We wrote to them on the 17th September 2020 setting out our concerns and asking them to consider these as a group. Whilst their Chairperson did acknowledge receipt of this letter and put us in touch with their Treasurer, stating that she had taken a step-back in the group, there has been no formal response from FOP and no attempt made to amend or remove their survey. We have since had a very amicable and constructive discussion with their Treasurer who has intimated that there are a range of opinions within FOP on our plans, which is completely understandable and something we very much respect. As a result, they’ve taken the view that, as an organisation, they should remain neutral and focus their efforts on ensuring our plans are fully and appropriately scrutinised across the community and that, if the project progresses, they play a part to help shape it to achieve as broad a community benefit as is possible. This is something we very much welcome and appreciate. Finally, we were advised that, despite in our view being negatively skewed, their survey does in fact show that, overall, the community is very supportive of our plans. We’ve asked to see the findings of this survey to ensure we gain as much feedback as possible on our plans to help shape them to best meet the community need, but this has yet to be provided. Our invitation to engage openly and constructively with FOP remains very much open. We truly believe we 58 share the same objectives and vision and have the potential to support each other in a wide variety of ways. We therefore very much look forward to working with FOP during Stage 2, if the project progresses to this point. In particular, we hope to be able to gain access to the detailed findings of their survey so that we can combine with our own (see Section 8) to provide a rich source of information, ideas, suggestions etc. which will be extremely useful as we develop the detailed facility design and operating model, particularly the community hub concept.

7.3.11 Local Community Groups We have spoken to a number of local organisations who would be interested in using our facilities to host meetings, events etc., including: . Rutherglen Community Council. . Burnside Community Council. . Cambuslang & Rutherglen Sports Council. All of these organisations have intimated their frustration in finding suitable, welcoming, community (not-for- profit) venues to host their activities, events etc.

7.3.12 Other As a club we regularly get enquiries from both community organisations and commercial enterprises looking for space to run events. Dance classes, yoga classes, art classes, baby-massage groups and first aid training are just a few examples of things we’ve had to turn away as our existing, modest clubhouse at Viewpark Drive is not sized and equipped to host such activities. Our proposed facility at Overtoun Park would be an ideal venue for these and we see significant opportunities to further expand the benefits this facility would deliver to the local community by welcoming them into the centre. In addition, it presents an opportunity to secure additional revenue streams to help cover our operating costs allowing us to do more for the community. However, clearly this will need to be carefully balanced against our desire to make this a true community facility.

7.4 CONCLUSIONS Through our passion and commitment to make this project a reality, we have invested a great deal of time and effort into building relationships with local businesses, enterprises, community organisations and groups to deliver the vibrant community hub we want to achieve. But this is no pipe dream, we have identified organisations who share our ethos and vision and want to work with us to achieve this goal. Clearly not all of these relationships will come to fruition but we believe there is enough interest here to show that this dream is achievable and this ground-work will provide a solid foundation to build this diverse, thriving community hub as part of Stage 2. We also recognise that as we continue to develop our plans and word spreads, more interested parties will come forward delivering even more potential benefits to the community.

Figure 7.1 provides an illustration of the thriving community hub this facility could establish.

Community Café with FREE WiFi Tennis Shop Community & Restringing Cinema Service

Physio & Green Health Sports Injury Initiative? Clinic . Rutherglen Community Council . Burnside Community Council 59 . CamGlen Sports Council . Community Classes Meeting Strength & space for Conditioning Community Coaching Groups

Wheelchair Catalyst and Accessible base for Public Toilets upgraded w/ Baby BMX track? Change

. Basketball . Carpet Bowls . Fitness/Exercise/Yoga Classes . Tea Dances . Quizzes

Figure 7.1: A broad and diverse Community Hub offering something for everyone

8. PUBLIC CONSULTATION We will not progress these plans unless there is community support and that the facility can exist in the proposed location in a way which delivers a clear, positive benefit to the community. We have therefore undertaken an expansive community consultation to test public appetite for such a facility, seek feedback on our plans from across the local community and, in particular, listen to any concerns or worries people have on any aspect of the proposal. This will help us determine how we can shape our proposals to ensure broad community support and deliver the vibrant community hub that is central to our vision. This public consultation comprised a number of different elements which are described in the following sub- sections. 8.1 RUTHERGLEN LTC MEMBERSHIP 60 This project is highly novel in that it will rely on a not-for profit, volunteer-lead, members club running a community facility. Whilst we see this as the key ingredient of our recipe for success, as described in Section 6.4, it is clearly predicated on the need for our membership to fully buy-into this vision. We presented our plans to the full membership at a meeting on Thursday 30th January 2020. Our membership understand the positive influence our club has on the local community and take a huge amount of pride and satisfaction from this, so we were not surprised to receive a hugely positive reaction. However, what did surprise us was the strength of feeling that this facility should be a true community hub which is open and accessible to all and the wide range of fantastic ideas identified both at the meeting and subsequently to deliver this vision. These ideas and suggestions have very much shaped and influenced the plans and vision presented in this document. The following testimonials provide a sense of the support that exists within the club to deliver this vision:

Fiona… “Having been a member of RLTC for approximately ten years I would like to say how much it has enriched my life. As a relatively unfit middle aged woman I took up tennis again, after a gap of about 30 years, and joined RLTC. In this club I have found friendship, fitness and fun. The very inclusive coaching programme runs throughout the year no matter what weather conditions and keeps players motivated while improving the standard of play. All levels of players are encouraged and benefit from the excellent coaching provided by the club. Over the years my personal fitness has increased and I have gained many new friends. The club is welcoming to new members and caring and considerate to older members. The club also gives a lot to the local community with charitable ventures and an open door policy. If the club should be successful with the Overtoun covered courts project this will enhance all the positive aspects of the club. The thought of playing with a degree of protection from the elements in Winter is very exciting and the thought of café facilities and a local hub for the community is an added bonus. At age 65, I did not imagine that I would still be playing competitive tennis but thanks to RLTC I am still on court and enjoying this aspect of my retirement.”

Ross… “I am a 16 year old performance tennis player from Rutherglen and am currently ranked No.2, 3 & 10 for U16, U18 and Gents Singles respectively in the West Of Scotland. I regularly represent the West of Scotland at County level. I am acutely aware of the dearth of indoor tennis facilities in this part of Glasgow. I currently have to travel to train at Newlands LTC (3.5 miles from my home) as it is the nearest quality indoor tennis facility. To have such an indoor facility on my doorstep (literally) from where I stay would be amazing and would, I believe, help me develop and progress my game to the next level. It would be a fantastic addition to our club which already has artificial grass and clay courts. To add an indoor option would be amazing. I think it will also be great for the local area and hopefully encourage more people to take up the sport (particularly important for physical and mental health in the current climate). I think it would also add a sense of community to the club, particularly the café open which will be open to the public. I’m really looking forward to enjoying this with my friends.”

Paul… “We joined RLTC after we attended an open day with our two young children. The friendly welcome and community feel just drew us into the club. It has such a brilliant family friendly atmosphere, award winning coaches and combines healthy activity with great social events. I believe having a community facility and covered courts would have a real positive impact on our family and the community giving everyone the opportunity to play and be active during inclement weather. We are also regular users of Overton Park and our extended family live within walking distance of the park. Being able to meet grandparents, spend time outdoors and then relax in a sheltered space with a café, toilets and community space is so appealing and is exactly what this brilliant park and community deserves." 61 Eleanor… “A friend asked me along to RLTC about eight years ago. Sport has always been part of my life but had fallen by the wayside due to work. I played tennis when I was younger at Cambuslang Public Park but like many public courts they are no longer there. From the beginning I was made very welcome and met a lot of old friends and new. It’s not just a tennis club it’s a club for the community. I’ve watched the club expand and go from strength to strength due to hard work and dedication from the president, committee and members. I think these new covered courts would be of great benefit to the community all round. In these uncertain times health and fitness are paramount and a sports facility of this kind for everyone to use can only be an advantage to the community young and old.”

Pete… “My wife and I moved to Burnside in 2015 with our daughter (then 2) and a son on the way. We knew nobody in the area and felt like we were starting our lives all over again. I was 36 years old, had played tennis a bit in my teenage years and thought that joining a local club could be a way to meet people from the local area. I did some research online and really liked the tone of RLTC's social media posts and comments/discussion from members etc. I met with the Membership Secretary for chat and joined the club... one of the best decisions I've ever made. I was instantly made to feel incredibly welcome and loved the community spirit that everyone in the club was displaying. There was so much on offer too: social competitions, club nights, social play, coaching opportunities. This club has it all! Fast forward a few years: I've joined the committee, my wife plays and both my kids are fully immersed in the junior programme (daughter is even now in the Development Squad for her age group) - and that's just the tennis... we have made friends for life and the club is single-handedly responsible for the reason we have now set down our roots in the Burnside/Rutherglen area for good. The addition of covered courts for the club would be the cherry on top... I think of this mainly form the kids' point of view. Scottish kids are a hardy lot but I've witnessed them on freezing cold, wet, wind Saturday mornings from November through to March and although many don't complain it isn't a pleasant experience. It can take the best part of the rest of the day to thaw them out! Doesn't feel right... A space more sheltered, warmer and protected from the elements is what the members of this club deserve, juniors and adults alike. It also would be a fantastic addition to the local community as a whole (on a currently massively underused area of Overtoun Park) for people to play tennis and socialise (hopefully more than we currently can in the world of COVID).”

Dan… “I joined RLTC 6 years ago after moving to Glasgow and was welcomed by the members and invited to play inter-club matches for the (lowest league) team. I have improved my tennis by attending the structured coaching sessions and social play, and have moved up through the teams and made many friends along the way. I thoroughly enjoy playing competitively across the West of Scotland against other clubs however, competitions and practice slow down over the winter months due to the weather. The proposed undercover facilities would allow us to continue to play throughout winter (and summer showers!) regardless of weather as well as providing more courts for use throughout the year. It’s great to be part of such a dynamic club seeking to make tennis more inclusive for the whole community.” 62 8.2 ELECTED OFFICIALS We have met virtually with the following elected officials to present our plans:

1) Local Councillors1 – Group Zoom Meeting – Tuesday 30th June 2020: . Councillor Martin Lennon - Rutherglen Central & North Ward . Councillor Janine Calikes - Rutherglen Central & North Ward . Councillor Carol Nugent – Rutherglen South Ward . Councillor Margaret Cowie – Rutherglen South Ward . Councillor Robert Brown – Rutherglen South Ward 2) Margaret Ferrier – MP for Rutherglen & Hamilton West – Tuesday 11th August 2020. 3) James Kelly – MSP for Glasgow – Wednesday 19th August 2020. 4) Care Haughey – MSP for Rutherglen – Friday 25th September 2020. In addition to gaining extremely useful and constructive feedback to help shape our plans, these discussions were hugely helpful in identifying a list of local community organisations who could potentially benefit from this facility and this was instrumental in shaping the community hub described in Section 7.3. These meetings were also extremely useful as they provided a conduit for local residents to raise specific concerns. No new concerns were raised beyond those we anticipated and included in our online survey (see Section 8.9) and discussed in detail in Section 3.13. This give us confidence that we’ve considered and addressed the issues that are of concern to local residents.

8.3 COMMUNITY GROUPS We have made contact with the following community groups to share our plans in detail, particularly our vision for a community hub:

Group Contact Overview & Outcome Burnside Community Council Alison Black – Secretary . Summary proposal sent via e-mail. [email protected] . Keen to discuss how they could use meeting space in facility in Stage 2. . Shared link to our online survey (see Section 8) on their Facebook page and posted on their notice board on Stonelaw Road. Cambuslang & Rutherglen Robert Brown – Secretary . Summary proposal sent via e-mail. Sports Council [email protected] . They discussed our plans at one of their regular meetings and advised that they are fully supportive and want to engage with us during Stage 2 to use this facility to promote and develop sport in the local area.

1 Councillor Jared Wark was in invited but did not respond.

Group Contact Overview & Outcome Enable Mary Cassidy . Summary proposal sent via e-mail. [email protected] . Met Mary in person on Tuesday 25th August. . Fully supportive of our plans – letter of support included in Appendix 14. Fernhill Playscheme Margaret Cowie – Chair [email protected] Friends of Overtoun Park Elaine Devlin – Chair See Section 7.3.10. [email protected] Grow73 Eugenie Aroutcheff – Chair . Various e-mails and calls. [email protected] . Fully supportive of our plans. . Keen to collaborate for mutual benefit as described in Section 7.3.2. . Letter of support included as 63 Appendix 11. Healthy n Happy Brendan Rooney – Executive Director . Summary proposal sent via e-mail [email protected] . Call with Brendan on the 28th August. . Fully supportive of our plans – letter of support included in Appendix 14. . Keen to discuss how they could use facility both directly and indirectly in Stage 2. CamGlen Bike Town Jim Ewing – Senior Team Leader . Zoom call with Jim on the 1st [email protected] September. . Keen to discuss how we could use facility as a catalyst to upgrade adjacent BMX Track as described in Section 7.3.9. Overtoun Park Bowing Club Eddie Picken – Secretary . Summary proposal sent via e-mail. [email protected] . Met Eddie and Anna McLean (President) on Tuesday 25th August at Bowling Club. . Fully supportive of our plans – letter of support included in Appendix 14. Rutherglen Community Carron McLellan – Secretary . Summary proposal sent via e-mail. Council [email protected] . Keen to discuss how they could use meeting space in facility in Stage 2. . Shared link to our online survey (see Section 8) on their Facebook page. Overtoun Church Janis Neil – Kirk Session . Summary proposal sent via e-mail. [email protected] . Keen to discuss how they could use facility in Stage 2. . Shared link to our online survey (see Section 8) on their Facebook page. Rutherglen Bankhead Tenants Paul McLaughlin . Summary proposal sent via e-mail. & Residents Association [email protected] . Fully supportive of our plans – letter of support included in Appendix 14. . Keen to discuss how they could use facility both directly and indirectly in Stage 2. Rutherglen Residential and Ray (?) . Summary proposal sent via e-mail with Nursing Care Home [email protected] invite to discuss in detail and followed- up by Grow73. . No response received. We extended an open invitation to all of these organisations to provide feedback on our plans and identify ways in which they could benefit from this facility both directly, in using our facilities, and indirectly, in using the space for their own activities. With the exception of Friends of Overtoun Park (see Section 7.3.10) all of these groups were very supportive and could see benefits and opportunities to them. These discussions have scoped out the vibrant community hub described in detail in Section 7.3.

8.4 LOCAL TENNIS CLUBS We have written to all other South Lanarkshire Tennis Clubs to advise them of our plans and, in particular, the route-map we intend to follow to give them a heads-up and prior notice that if we do get “Heads of Terms”

agreement we’ll be looking to engage proactively with them in Stage 2 to use the facility as a central hub to promote, grow and develop the game of tennis in South Lanarkshire for the benefit of all local clubs. This is discussed further in Section 6.2.4.

The letter presented in Appendix 15 was sent to the following clubs: . Cambuslang LTC . Kirkhill LTC . Uddingston LTC . East Kilbride LTC . Hamilton LTC . Strathaven LTC . Lanark LTC 8.5 PRIMARY SCHOOL PARENT COUNCILS 64 We contacted the Parent Councils for the 13 local Primary Schools we support with our free tennis programme (see Section 6.2.2) asking that they share a link to our on-line survey to ensure it gets as many responses as possible. The following groups were contacted: . Calderwood Primary . St Marks Primary . St Columbkille’s Primary . Loch Primary . Cathkin Primary . Westcoats Primary . Burgh Primary . Burnside Primary . Park View Primary . James Aiton Primary . Bankhead Primary . St Anthony’s Primary . Spittal Primary

8.6 SL LEISURE & CULTURE We met with Patrick Murphy (Development Services Manager at SL Leisure and Culture) and Karen McInally (Active Schools Manager at SL Leisure and Culture) on Thursday 3rd September to present our plans. They were supportive of our proposals and welcomed the community hub vision and the proposal to use the facility as a framework for other sports, pastimes and activities to thrive. On this specific point, they suggested we speak to Cambuslang Harriers and this established the relationship described in Section 7.3.4. They recognised the benefits a well organised, committed voluntary club can deliver to the wider community and were supportive of this. The possibility of linking our facility into NHS Lanarkshire’s “Green Health Infinitive”, given its close proximity to the Rutherglen Primary Care Centre (RPCC), was discussed and the idea of locating one of their coordinators within our facility to maximise the benefit this relationship could deliver to the community was mooted. A number of other specific opportunities and ideas were discussed: . Using our facility to create and promote a cycle hub to support SL’s wider green travel initiative. . As part of the above, locate some of SL Leisure’s fleet of e-bikes at our facility to make them more available and accessible and hence better used. . Using our facility as a catalyst to upgrade the adjacent BMX track (see Section 7.3.9). . Potential funding routes to enable the appointment of a “Facility Manager” (see Section 4.6) who’s primary responsibility would be to ensure the effective delivery of the community hub vision. Clearly, at this early stage, there is not commitment on either party and we recognise that SL Leisure and Culture have approached this initial exploratory meeting in the same open and constructive fashion that they would engage with any local sports club. These ideas are merely presented here to illustrate the benefits our proposed facility could deliver to the local community. We make this clarification so as not to overstate in any way their commitment and support to the project or indeed our interpretation of this. Should we be granted “Heads of Terms”, we would hope that we would be able to engage with SL Leisure and Culture during Stage 2 to explore these ideas further to try to build the thriving community hub that is central to our vision.

8.7 SL EDUCATION We e-mailed Tony McDaid, Executive Director of Education Resources, an overview of our plans and requested a meeting with him or one of his team to explore further, particularly the benefits it will deliver to the wide number of local schools we currently serve (see Section 6.1) as well as additional schools we can help given the increased space this facility will deliver and, more importantly, our ability to accommodate te children in all weathers. As of yet, no further discussions have been held. Tony Gilhooly, Active Schools Coordinator for SL Leisure and Culture joined our meeting with Patrick Murphy and Karen McInally and was hugely complementary of the work the club had done to build our expansive schools tennis programme (see Section 6.1). Tony recognised the huge benefits an all-weather facility would deliver, not just in allowing us to expand this programme and deliver it on a year-round basis, but in providing much needed indoor facilities for school children to enjoy. 65 8.8 LOCAL RESIDENTS We very much recognise that it will be the residents in the streets surrounding the park that will be most directly impacted by these plans. We therefore saw their feedback and views as absolutely fundamental to our public consultation and so were extremely keen to engage with them to understand their thoughts, views and concerns. We wrote to all neighbouring properties on Overtoun Drive, Johnstone Drive (up to Park View), Stonelaw Road and Rodger Drave, briefly introducing them to our plans, directing them to our website for more details and inviting them to a Zoom meeting where we would present our plans in detail and listen to their feedback, concerns etc. This letter is included as Appendix 16. We received 16 responses to this letter and these are summarised below: . 11 requested the link to join the Zoom meeting. . 3 declined invite to Zoom call but wanted to get in touch to express their strong support for the project. . 1 declined invite to Zoom but e-mailed to advise concerns about parking around Broomieknow Gardens. . 1 responded after Zoom meeting to advise a general concern about parking. In addition, Councillor Calikes identified one of her constituents who wanted to attend the Zoom call but didn’t want to provide her contact details. We agreed that Councillor Calikes, herself a local resident, would share the link with the individual to allow her to attend. This Zoom meeting was held at 7:30pm on Wednesday 9th September with 10 households joining. We took 45 mins to walk through our plans in detail, focusing particularly on our proposed car parking solution described in Section 3.13.5. We then opened-up the floor for a free-form question and answer session which lasted more than an hour. This was an extremely open and constructive discussion. Whilst concerns were expressed about car parking, loss of green space, visual impact and noise, as these points were explored in detail, the group did not seem overly concerned about these issues and welcomed the measures we plan to put in place to mitigate these issues. Two households articulated their very strong support for the project and their appreciation for all the hard work that been put into the project thus far and the efforts being taken by volunteers to try and improve the community. Following the meeting, we shared the presentation slides with all who registered for the call, regardless of whether they ultimately joined, whilst inviting them to come back to us with any further questions, queries etc. There has been no further contact from any of the local residents since this meeting.

8.9 COMMUNITY SURVEY 8.9.1 Background, Objectives & Methodology We engaged the services of IBP Strategy and Research to conduct an independent community survey on our behalf. This survey set-out the background to our proposals before gathering feedback on various different aspects including: . Interest in usage of the different elements of the proposed facility. . Potential benefits it could have for individuals and the community as a whole. . Specific views on the suitability of the proposed location and reasons for this. . Identification of the extent of any concerns that people had over the proposals. . Levels of overall support/opposition to the proposals. 66 The purpose of this survey was to determine, at an early stage, whether there was appetite for such a facility within the local community and to seek feedback to help shape the plans. The survey was carried out exclusively online, during September 2020, with links shared through a wide variety of channels including: . E-mail to all RLTC members. . Post on our website. . Posts on Facebook (our initial post achieved a reach of ~20,000). . Posts on Twitter. . Social Media posts by Elected Officials. . Request to the Parent Councils of the Primary Schools we work with to share amongst their members via their social media channels. . Request to neighbouring Tennis Clubs to share with their members. . Requests to the various community groups we’ve engaged with to share with their members, supporters etc. . Letter drop of “immediate neighbours” in the vicinity of Overtoun Park. The survey questionnaire is presented in Appendix 17. There were a total of 679 responses, which IBP consider to be a very substantial level of response for an early- stage consultation project of this nature. 520 respondents provided postcode information, allowing for the following profile of responses to be identified: . 77% of respondents were from the G73 (Rutherglen) postcode areas. . 14% were from the G72 (Cambuslang and Blantyre) postcode areas. . 3% were from the G74/75 (East Kilbride) postcode areas. . 4% were from other G (Greater Glasgow) postcodes. . 3% were from other postcodes further afield. Where postcode information was provided, it has been possible to identify responses from “immediate neighbours” both to the immediate north and south of Overtoun Park. Whilst these are relatively few in number IBP have, where appropriate, identified their views separately.

The detailed findings of this community survey are presented in IBP’s report included as Appendix 18, with the key findings summarised in the following sub-sections.

8.9.2 Overall views on the proposal . 82% of respondents indicated that they supported the proposal fully and a further 9% that they tended to support it. So, overall, 91% of respondents are supportive of our plans. . 6% of respondents indicated that they opposed the proposal fully and a further 3% that they tended to oppose it. So, overall, 9% of respondents oppose our plans.

. Whilst support for our proposal was highest amongst RLTC members (92% supported fully and 5% tended to support) it was also very high amongst others (78% supported fully and 10% tended to support). These figures were similar for existing park users (78% supported fully and 9% tended to support). Amongst immediate neighbours there was also majority support for the proposal. Amongst those to the north, 40% indicated that they supported the proposal fully and 15% tended to support it; 20% indicated that they opposed the proposal fully and 15% that they tended to oppose it, with 10% providing a “don’t know” response. Amongst those to the south, 60% indicated that they supported the proposal fully and 30% tended to support it, with the remaining 10% indicating that they tended to oppose the proposal.

8.9.3 Views on the location of the Facility . A very substantial majority (90%) considered that this was a suitable location compared to 8% that indicated it was not and 2% of respondents who provided a “don’t know” response. . Agreement that the location was a suitable one was particularly high amongst existing RLTC members (95%) but was also very high amongst non-members (88%). Respondents from the G73 postcode were 67 even more likely than others to consider the location to be suitable. A majority of respondents identified as “immediate neighbours” agreed that the location was appropriate, the level of agreement being 70% amongst immediate neighbours to the north and 80% amongst immediate neighbours to the south. . By some distance, the most common theme as to why the location was suitable was that the specific proposed space is currently in poor condition or not put to good use (this theme was referenced on 38% of these comments). The most common other reasons within these comments for people being supportive included that the location was seen as central/easy to access (referenced in 15% of comments), that the space had previously been used for tennis courts (referenced in 14% of comments) and the potential for the facility to have a positive impact on other park users. . The most common reasons as to why the location was not suitable were a preference to retain the area as green space (referenced in 9% of these comments), the impact on existing users of that specific part of the park (referenced in 7% of comments), the impact on immediate neighbours of the facility (also referenced in 7% of comments) and parking/transport issues (referenced in 6% of comments).

8.9.4 Potential usage and impact of the facility . The survey findings show a very high level of interest in usage of the covered tennis courts, with 48% of respondents overall indicating that they would be interested in using the tennis courts as a member of RLTC and 6% as a member of another tennis club. 51% indicated they would be interested in using the tennis courts on a pay-as-you-play basis (the survey questionnaire noted that there would also be limited free access to the courts to encourage participation). It is noted that 28% of those that were not members of RLTC indicated an interest in using the courts as a member of the club and 62% of people in this category in using the courts on a pay-as-you-play basis. Expressed in another way: . 183 respondents identified themselves as members of Rutherglen LTC, yet 318 respondents stated that they would be interested in using the facility as a member of the club. This suggests that there are 135 potential new members within this survey group. . 338 respondents stated that they would be interested in playing tennis on a "pay-as-you-go" basis. This suggests substantial potential demand for both types of usage and validates the claim made in Section 6.2.1 that the opening of new covered courts will attract a whole new demographic of members which will accelerate our growth. In addition, the considerable demand for pay-as-you-go use will, in itself, build a vibrant community tennis scene. . There is also a substantial level of interest apparent in the other sporting elements of the proposal, with 39% expressing interest in the “padel” tennis courts and 56% in a games facility offering free-to-use table tennis, table football and pool. . A similarly high proportion of respondents (58%) indicated an interest in using the flexible space available for community use at low cost (examples of such use were given as a prompt, including dance, arts, fitness/exercise classes, community cinema, screenings of big sporting events and community meeting rooms). Respondents from the G73 postcode (63%) and existing park users (68%) were particularly likely to express an interest in this. . The highest level of interest in any of the elements of the proposal was for the café, with 85% of survey respondents indicating an interest in this (the figure again being particularly high amongst existing park users at 87%). This validates our vision of the café serving as the heartbeat of a vibrant community hub.

. 66% indicated an interest in access to the toilets, which would be available for public use and 34% in use of the secure, covered bicycle storage facility. . Overall, IBP have concluded that these responses suggest widespread interest across the tennis, other sporting and wider communities in the use of the proposed facility. . A substantial majority of respondents felt that the proposal would have a positive effect on the community, as follows: . 74% felt it would increase participation in sport. . 72% felt it would improve people's physical health. . 71% felt it would improve people's mental health. . 71% felt it would helping bring people in the community together. . 70% felt it would enhance people's pride in their community. . When asked how they would anticipate accessing the facility were they to use it, 75% of respondents said this would be on foot, 47% by car, 36% by bicycle and 5% by public transport. Multiple responses 68 were allowed for this question and the responses suggest that, whilst some people would always use the same method of accessing the facility, some would use different methods in different circumstances. . Responders were invited to propose other facilities or activities that they would like to see included in these plans beyond those identified within the survey. Many of these suggestions have already been incorporated within our detailed plans, as described within this document (e.g. free to use PCs, sports injury clinic, tennis shop and stringing service, free equipment hire, upgrade to BMX track, carpet bowls, yoga classes, meeting rooms, accessible toilets with baby-change facilities etc.) which gives us confidence that there is considerable public demand for our proposals. A number of interesting additional ideas were identified which we would propose to explore in detail during Stage 2, for example: . Tennis practice wall. . Badminton court(s). . Squash court. . Snooker table. . Netball court. . “Soft-play” area for babies and toddlers. . Running path/track around facility. Clearly we’re not going to be able to incorporate all of these ideas. First and foremost, this facility will be a tennis facility. This is where the demand has come from and where the funding will be sourced. However, we very much recognise that by thinking creatively and imaginatively we can intertwine lots of other facilities, activities, pastimes etc. into the facility to provide even wider appeal. Tennis will provide the framework for these other facilities to exist and these other facilities will create a vibrant environment that will benefit the tennis scene. We see this as very much a symbiotic relationship and will do everything we reasonably can, within the constraints of the project, to incorporate as many of these ideas as possible into our plans during Stage 2.

8.9.5 Possible concerns . Respondents were provided with a range of possible issues relating to the proposal and were asked to categorise these as “not a concern”, “a slight concern” or “a big concern”. There were two issues which a majority of respondents categorised as either a “slight” or “big” concern. These were: . Potential for vandalism (46% described this as a slight concern and a further 17% as a significant concern); immediate neighbours to the north (30%) and to the south (40%) were more likely to describe this as a "big" concern. . Parking (38% described this as a slight concern and a further 16% as a significant concern); this was a much more common concern amongst immediate neighbours to the north of the park, with 65% of these describing it as a "big" concern. . The next most common concern was around the potential for anti-social behaviour with 36% describing this as a slight concern and 12% as a big concern (the latter figure was higher amongst immediate neighbours to the north (25%) and amongst immediate neighbours to the south (40%)). . A significant minority of respondents also indicated that loss of green space was a concern, with this being a slight concern for 18% of respondents and a big concern for 10% (53% of immediate neighbours

to the north described this as a “big” concern although none of the immediate neighbour respondents from the south of the park did so). . It was noted that some such concerns (albeit these are often “slight” concerns) are held by people that are generally supportive of the proposal as well as those that may oppose it. . Only a relatively small proportion of respondents considered the other issues listed to be possible concerns. 19% overall considered that noise was a concern to some extent (12% slight concern, 7% big concern), 17% that light pollution was a concern (11% slight concern, 6% big concern) and 17% that loss of visual amenity was a concern (9% slight concern, 8% big concern). This feedback has heavily influenced our plans. We’ve shaped our proposal to either eliminate these concerns through the design of the facility or reduce their significance by implementing mitigations. As described in Section 3.13, we believe we can adequately address all of these concerns during detailed design (Stage 2). 69 . The survey asked for responders to identify any other concerns beyond the list above. The only other significant concern raised was that related to the known chromium contamination in this area of the park. As described in Section 3.13.7, measures will be taken during detailed design (Stage 2) to ensure that neither the construction of the facility or its use will pose any risk of a contamination spread and resulting health hazard.

8.9.6 General feedback . Respondents had the opportunity to make any further comments that they wished and 225 people did so. Other than general positive and supportive comments (42% of comments were classified as such) the most common theme to emerge from these final comments was the importance of inclusivity and wider community benefits (such issues were referenced in 34% of the comments). Other than this, the most common themes identified related to benefits associated with playing tennis (referenced in 9% of comments) and health/fitness/wellbeing benefits (referenced in 8% of comments). . Outside of the survey itself, but solicited through its promotion, we received a huge amount of feedback on our plans, particularly through Social Media. Whilst the overwhelming majority of this feedback was hugely positive and supportive, some concerns were expressed, particularly around car parking, loss of green space and visual impact. No new concerns were identified beyond those anticipated by ourselves and discussed in Section 3.13. This gives us confidence that we understand the impact of the facility on the local community and are taking appropriate measures to manage and mitigate these. Section 9 collates the answers we provided to the hundreds of questions posted on social media about our plans, thereby forming a helpful list of “Frequently Asked Questions”. 8.10 CONCLUSIONS We believe this public consultation has served the needs and objectives of Stage 1 of the project (see Figure 1.3) by: . Demonstrating that, even at this early stage, there is huge support for our plans across the local community, and that there is broad support from the immediate neighbours who will be most directly impacted. . Reassuring us we understand the impact of the facility on the local community and are taking appropriate measures to manage and mitigate these. In addition, it provides a rich source of information, ideas, suggestions etc. which will be extremely useful as we develop the detailed facility design and operating model, particularly the community hub concept, in Stage 2 if the project is allowed to progress.

9. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Can you provide an overview of you project plan and indicative timescales? The route-map we are following is illustrated below along with indicative timescales. STAGE 1 STAGE 2 STAGE 3 STAGE 4 Scoping & Development Detailed Design Planning Implementation End 2020 End 2021 Early 2022 End 2022 Work with SLC to agree “Heads of Terms” for lease of land for 25 years for a “peppercorn” rent. Undertake ground investigation Secure Building 70 Develop detailed proposal covering: work . Where it will be located. Warrant . What it might look like. . How it will work. Appoint Develop detailed Build Facility . How it will be managed. Collate into Contractors . The benefits it will deliver to the detailed proposal facility design community. document. . How it will be funded. Resolve any Test/Commission . How it will generate sufficient Apply for Planning income to be entirely self- Planning conditions sustaining in future. SLC Yes Permission Open agree Heads of Agree Terms? construction Determine community appetite for Secure funding programme with Official Opening facility and identify what facilities, No all relevant Ceremony services, opportunities etc. they Stakeholders would like to see within facility and, wherever possible within overall Planning objective of project, work to include Permission & these within plans. funding secured? Yes Collaborate openly and constructively with all community organisations interested in getting No involved in our project.

This document represents the culmination of Stage 1 and presents our written proposal to South Lanarkshire Council to hopefully secure “Heads of Terms” agreement for the long-term ease of the land on a peppercorn rent basis. With “Heads of Terms” agreement we will then have a window of opportunity and security on the site to deliver the project via successive stages.

Will the tennis courts be accessible and affordable for the local community? Yes. The courts will be open and accessible to the local community on a pay-as-you-go basis. With our strong cost focus on the design of the facility and a careful blend of commercial enterprise and our voluntary ethos in how we operate and manage it, we believe these will be the cheapest covered tennis courts in Scotland. In addition, we will provide slots each day available FREE on a first-come-first-served basis to make tennis truly accessible to all. Our McDonald’s sponsored schools tennis programme, which we deliver to 13 local primary schools, gives hundreds of children the chance to play tennis for free. What we do for these schools is not limited by funding or enthusiasm to do more, it’s limited by the weather. It’s just not conducive for children to walk round to play on outdoor courts in winter months. With covered courts we’ll be able to deliver this programme on an expanded, year round basis. All of the community organisations identified in Section 7 are keen to benefit from the facility directly through coach-led tennis sessions or our coaching team delivering training to their staff to run sessions themselves. However, we will not be constrained by existing relationships. We believe we have only just touched the surface of the community groups who could benefit from this facility and, if successful in securing “Heads of Terms” we will work during Stage 2 to identify other groups and work with all interested parties to build a vibrant community programme.

Will the café be open to the public? Absolutely. This will be a true community café and social space, with free WiFi, which will play a central role within our vision of a vibrant community hub. It will provide a friendly, relaxed environment for everyone to enjoy a highly affordable menu which meets the needs of our members and the wider community. Local residents, the general public, park users, health centre staff etc. etc. etc. will all be warmly welcomed into our facility to use the café.

Will any trees be felled to make way for facility? Whilst the mature trees around the proposed plot (along the boundary with the Rutherglen Primary Care Centre/Rutherglen Residential Care Home and Overtoun Drive) will not be touched, it is likely that we will need to remove the trees growing in the middle of the proposed site to make way for the new structure. We would propose to replace these with new trees to complement the wider landscaping as described in Section 7.2.11.

Will the facility exacerbate local parking issues? 71 We recognise that parking is a particular concern for local residents and we very much empathise with this. We are therefore proposing what we hope will viewed as a sensible and pragmatic solution of utilising the car park within the adjacent Rutherglen Primary Care Centre (RPCC) and forming an entrance to our facility off this. As part of our project, and entirely at our cost, we are proposing to install additional car parking spaces by repurposing the existing grass verge that borders the neighbouring residential care home to cover the spaces we require during weekday daytime. We would use the RPCC car park in evenings and at weekends, where it provides way more spaces than we would ever need. These additional spaces would be undesignated allowing them to benefit the health centre when not used in quieter periods by us, thus helping to address, to a small degree, wider car parking issues in the local area. We believe this solution offers three key benefits. Firstly, it keeps the entrance away from Overtoun Drive, reducing the impact of the facility on these residents and avoids additional traffic up Johnstone Drive, beyond the turn-off to the RPCC, and into Overtoun Drive. Secondly, it provides sufficient spaces for all additional cars thereby avoiding any additional parking in neighbouring streets. Last but not least, it establishes a main entrance to our facility off the RPCC car park, making it readily accessible to staff and patients of the centre, effectively creating a campus site. This will allow us to work in close partnership RPCC to deliver a range of mutual benefits. This is discussed further in Section 3.13.5.

Will the facility cause light pollution? The tensioned fabric skin will be semi-translucent to avoid the need to operate court lighting during daylight hours. This will reduce operating costs as well as the facilities carbon footprint. In addition, it will help achieve the “outdoors-indoors” feel we are striving to achieve. As a consequence, there will be some light spillage during hours of darkness when the court lights are on. However, with the facility closing at 10pm each night, as per our existing facilities at Viewpark and Burnside, and with this spillage manifesting as subtle glow rather than any direct shine/glare from external floodlights such as those at our Viewpark and Burnside courts, we do not consider this to be intrusive to local residents, particularly given the proposed siting of the facility away from the houses along Overtoun Drive and Johnstone Drive.

Will the facility generate noise? The new facility will generate some noise. In terms of the noise generated from tennis activities (ball striking, line calling etc.) this will be less than from the outdoor blaes courts that previously existed in this location in the park due to them being enclosed. In addition, the covered courts will be sited further from the houses on Overtoun Drive and Johnstone Drive than the old courts. The noise generated from other activities will be low given that they will be contained within a fabric structure and the strict operating hours will mean that the facility will be closed at 10pm each night at the latest.

Will the public be welcome to use the social space and toilets? Yes, absolutely. Our vision is to make this a vibrant community hub. The busier it is the better it is for our club. The healthier our club, the more we can do for the local community. We see this as very much a symbiotic relationship where a not-for-profit tennis club can help the community and vice versa.

Will the BMX track be lost? No, the BMX track will remain. We are proposing to build our facility on the area of grassland between the BMX track and Overtoun Park Bowling Club, along the boundary with the Rutherglen Primary Care Centre. Indeed, as described in Section 7.3.9, we recognise that our project could be a catalyst for the regeneration of this facility and a hub to support its wider use and we’re keen to work with a range of interested parties during Stage 2 to try and deliver this and further expanding this community sporting hub.

Why don’t you put a cover over your existing courts to allow truly all-weather play? We have explored this at both our Viewpark and Burnside courts but there is insufficient space to build a suitable structure whilst maintaining minimum court dimensions. Also, we do not believe either of these options would gain planning consent due to the residential location of these facilities. It should also be noted that a secondary driver to this project is our need to provide more courts to satisfy the huge demand for tennis within the local community which we have created. Covering our existing courts would clearly not meet this demand. 72 What other sites have you considered? We have explored a number of other sites in various depths:

1) Cunningar Loop. 2) Burnhill. 3) Peter Brownlee Park, Cambuslang. 4) Stonelaw High School (old Templeton blaes courts). We progressed Option 4 in a fair degree of detail but SLC advised that they did not consider this to be viable for a number of reasons and that they would not be able to offer “Heads of Terms” agreement allowing us to progress the project. Options 1 to 3 are considered too far away from our existing facilities on Viewpark Drive and Burnside Road. They would not be readily accessible to our members on foot or bike and hence we would lose the compact, “village” feel that we believe has been fundamental to our success.

What will happen to the facility if Rutherglen LTC falls into hard times? This project is novel in that it will rely on a not-for profit, volunteer-lead, members club running a community facility. Whilst we see this as the key ingredient of our recipe for success, as described in Section 6.4, conversely, if the club fell into hard times, this could cause its quick demise. A loss of key volunteers, a reduction in opportunities on and off-court, the deterioration of facilities, a decrease in membership, or decline in interest in tennis more generally, are the five key factors that would adversely affect the health of a tennis club. However, these factors are not mutually exclusive, they are all very much interlinked with one potentially initiating the other creating a domino effect. Were we to experience any of these factors then, at best, our ability to deliver the community hub vision described in Section 7 could be compromised. As an absolute worst case scenario, the club could become dormant or indeed die, such that it can longer serve its function and look after its facilities. In this doomsday scenario, our Articles of Association ensure that on our dissolution, our property/assets etc. would be transferred to a body who’s motives and interests are the same as ours or, if no such suitable body is identified, a suitable charitable enterprise, with this philanthropic responsibility rolling over onto future operating bodies. As such, no individual connected with our facilities can benefit financially now or in the future, they must remain a community asset. We are effectively just guardians of a community facility. These arrangements exist now for our Viewpark and Burnside facilities and would extend into our proposed Overtoun covered courts. However, we do not consider either scenario to be credible for two main reasons. Whilst it is fair to say that the catalyst for our growth and success was a small, committed group of volunteers, the journey this team has taken the club on over the last ~10 years has built a fully sustainable model for the effective management of the club and a critical mass of members and volunteers to support and oversee our continued success. This is much more important than the short-term successes we have enjoyed, as described in Section 2, as this blueprint we have created will deliver even greater success for decades to come. As such, our long-term health and prosperity is not reliant on any individuals - our voluntary and community ethos is now part of our DNA. So, as the club continues to ebb and flow, other volunteers will come forward, bringing with them their own ideas and enthusiasm to further develop our club and play an even greater role within

the local community. Nor is our club at the mercy of external trends. We have shown that tennis is not a short- term fad inspired by the success of Andy Murray. There is huge appetite for our sport across the local community if delivered in a welcoming, friendly and inclusive way. Our membership understand the positive influence our club has on the local community and take a huge amount of pride and satisfaction from this. The community hub vision which is central to these plans is not something which has been forced upon them. Quite the contrary. It has been conceived and developed by our members as described in Section 8.1. This is a very practical illustration of the extent to which this ethos forms part of our DNA and provides huge confidence that we will deliver this vision throughout the life of the facility. Secondly, whilst the club recognises, accepts and, indeed, relishes the burden placed upon us to deliver this vibrant community facility, we fully expect that the community hub itself will collectively step forward to share this burden. As described in Section 7, through our passion and commitment to make this project a reality, we have invested a great deal of time and effort into building relationships with local businesses, enterprises, community organisations and groups to deliver the vibrant community hub we want to achieve. But this is no pipe dream, we have identified organisations who share our ethos and vision and want to work with us to 73 achieve this goal. This will create a broad, diverse and sustainable cooperative culture that will deliver benefits way beyond the sum of its individual parts. Rutherglen LTC will create the environment for this community hub to blossom, but it will be the cooperative culture that will thrive within this environment that will deliver the vibrant community hub that everyone can enjoy over the life of the facility.

What will happen to the site at the end of the 25 year lease? A minimum lease of 25 years will be required to allow us to source the funding required to build this community facility. However, in our planning and vision, we are looking way beyond this period. We will operate this facility on a fully self-sustainable basis ensuring we look after and maintain the facility to benefit generations to come. As part of this, we will service a sinking fund to renew/replace the different elements of the facility at the end of their life, for example, the acrylic tennis courts will require recoating ever ~5 years, the fabric skin will require to be replaced every ~20 years and there will be an ongoing programme of routine maintenance to ensure the facility meets the high standard of our existing facilities. Whilst we hope and expect that the discussions towards the end of this lease period will be on extending this agreement to allow us to continue to operate this vibrant community facility to benefit future generations, clearly this is no formality. We will therefore make provision within our sinking fund and annual business planning to return the site to its current state in the event that a lease extension cannot be agreed. This will ensure that the community is not left with any kind of burden or liability at the end of our lease of the facility.

Why do you think a “peppercorn” rent is appropriate? We believe a peppercorn rent is wholly appropriate on the basis that as a “not for profit” community organisation, any costs we incur will directly hit what we can do to support the local community. Also, as described in Section 7, we are proposing to turn an underused piece of parkland into a vibrant community hub that everyone can access and enjoy, entirely at our cost.

10. APPENDICES PAGE

1 Site Services Drawings 75 2 Site Plan showing proposed car parking solution 87 3 Rutherglen LTC Articles of Association 89 4 Current Coaching Programme 102 5 Performance Programme 104 6 Schools Tennis Festival 106 74 7 Expression of interest from Whisk to operate Community Café 108 8 Expression of interest from String Sports to operate Tennis Shop 128 9 Expression of interest from Karen Gibson to operate Physio/Sports Injury Clinic 130 10 Expression of interest from Andy Cornwell to provide a Strength & Conditioning coaching service 132 11 Letter of support from Grow73 134 12 Expression of interest from Glasgow South Table Tennis Club 136 13 Expression of interest from Cambuslang Harriers 139 14 Letters of support from Community Groups/Organisations 141 15 Letter to local Tennis Clubs 146 16 Letter to local residents 149 17 Community Survey Questionnaire 152 18 Community Survey Report 165

APPENDIX 1 Site Services Drawings Pages 1 Gas 5 2 Electricity 1 3 BT Openreach 1 4 Virgin Media 1 5 Combined Drinking Water & Foul Drainage 1 6 Foul Drainage (Broader View) 1 7 Combined Foul Drainage & Surface Water Proposal 1 TOTAL: 11

Date Requested: 07/09/2020 Job Reference: 19850572 Site Location: 261624 661123 Requested by: Mr Kieran Duffy Your Scheme/Reference: 20787

This plan shows the location of those pipes owned by Scotia Gas Networks (SGN) by virtue of being a licensed Gas Transporter (GT). Gas pipes owned by other GTs or third parties may also be present in this area but are not shown on this plan. Information with regard to such pipes should be obtained from the relevant owners. No warranties are given with regard to the accuracy of the information shown on this plan. Service pipes, valves, siphons, sub-connections etc. are not shown but their presence should be anticipated. You should be aware that a small percentage of our pipes/assets may be undergoing review and will temporarily be highlighted in yellow. If your proposed works are close to one of these pipes, you should contact the SGN Safety Admin Team on 0800 912 1722 for advice. No liability of any kind whatsoever is accepted by SGN or its agents, servants or sub-contractors for any error or omission contained herein. Safe digging practices, in accordance with HS (G)47, must be used to verify and establish the actual position of mains, pipes, services and other apparatus on site before any mechanical plant is used. It is your responsibility to ensure that plant location information is provided to all persons (whether direct labour or sub-contractors) working for you on or near gas apparatus. Information included on this plan should not be referred to beyond a period of 28 days from the date of issue.

Report damage immediately – KEEP EVERYONE AWAY FROM THE AREA 0800 111 999

Low Pressure Mains Medium Pressure Mains

Overview Intermediate Pressure Mains High Pressure Mains LAs GTs SSSIs

Some Examples Of Plant Items Depth of Diameter Material Valve Syphon  Cover  Change  Change  Digsite: Line: Area:

This plan is reproduced from or based on the OS map by Scotia Gas Networks plc, with the sanction of the controller of HM Stationery Office. Crown Copyright Reserved. Southern Gas – Warning: PDF designed for A3 colour print only with no page scaling. 100044373 and Scotland Gas – 100044366.

Warning: PDFdesignedfor A3colourprint onlywithnopage scaling.

0 10 20

metres Report damage Report immediately – KEEP EVERYONE AWAY FROM THE AREA hs ln hw te oain f hs pps we b Soi Gas Scotia by owned pipes those of location the shows plan This gas beyondperiod the of near from days a28 date of issue. or on you for to be referred Information notapparatus. should plan this on included working sub-contractors) or (whether persons labour all direct to provided is information location plant that in ensure to responsibility your is It used. is plant mechanical any before site practices, on apparatus other and diggingservices pipes, mains, theof establish position Safe actual and verify to used herein. be must (G)47, contained HS with accordance omission or error any for sub-contractors or servants agents, its or SGN by accepted is kindwhatsoever any advice.liability No1722 of for 0800 912 on Team Admin Safety SGN the contact should you pipes, these of one to close are works proposed your If yellow. in highlighted be temporarily will and review undergoing be may pipes/assets our of percentage small a that aware be should You anticipated. be should presence their but this on shown plan. Service pipes, information valves, siphons, sub-connections the etc. are of not shown accuracy the to regard with given pipesrelevant are should obtainedowners. No the warranties be from such to regard with Information plan. this on shown not are but area this in present be also may parties third or GTs other by owned pipes Networks (SGN) by virtue of being a licensed Gas Transporter (GT). Gas Digsite: Valve Some Examples Of Plant Items GTs LAs High Pressure Mains Intermediate Pressure Mains Medium Pressure Mains Low Pressure Mains All areas Mapping Enquiries: Contact Us This plan is reproduced from or based on the OS map by Scotia Scotia basedor OS by map Thisis from the on planreproduced Stationery Office. Crown Copyright Reserved. Southern Gas – Gas Southern Reserved. Copyright Stationery Crown Office. Gas Networks plc, with the sanction of the controller of HM the ofHM controller of sanction with plc, theGas Networks 1:1000 Linedigsite 1:1000 AreaorCircledigsite Exact Scales: 20787 Your Scheme/Reference: Mr KieranDuffy Requested by: Site Location:261624661123 Job Reference:19850572 Date Requested:07/09/2020 

100044373 and Scotland Gas – 100044366. and Gas100044373 Scotland –100044366. Line: Syphon

Cover Depth of 0800 111 111 0800 999 

All areas General Enquiries: Area: SSSIs Change Diameter

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100044373 and Scotland Gas – 100044366. and Gas100044373 Scotland –100044366. Line: Syphon

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100044373 and Scotland Gas – 100044366. and Gas100044373 Scotland –100044366. Line: Syphon

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100044373 and Scotland Gas – 100044366. and Gas100044373 Scotland –100044366. Line: Syphon

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(c) Crown copyright and database rights 2020 Ordnance Survey 100019209 Date: 11/09/20 Scale: 1:2357 Map Centre: 261532,661087 Data updated: 03/08/20 Telecoms Plan A4

Important Information - please read The purpose of this plan is to identify Virgin Media apparatus. We have [email protected] tried to make it as accurate as possible but we cannot warrant its accuracy. In addition, we caution that within Virgin Media apparatus there may be instances where mains voltage power cables have been placed inside green, rather than black ducting. Further details can be found using the "Affected Postcodes.pdf", VM.1171999 which can be downloaded from this website. Therefore, you must not rely solely on this plan if you are carrying out any excavation or other works in the vicinity of Virgin Media apparatus. The actual position of any underground service must be verified by cable detection equipment, etc. and established on site before any mechanical plant is used. Accordingly, unless it is due to the negligence of Virgin Media, its employees or agents, Virgin Media will not have any liability for any omissions or inaccuracies in the plan or for any loss or damage caused or arising from the use of and/or any reliance on this plan. This plan is produced by Virgin Media Limited (c) Crown copyright and database rights 2020 Ordnance Survey 100019209.

BasedpermissionStationeryLicenceAL? 100018007 upon No. ofOffice. the the Ordnance Controller Crown CopyrightSurvey of H.M. map Reserved. with the

2 x Padel Courts

Changing/Cafe 4 x Acrylic Tennis Courts Tennis Acrylic x 4

FLOW CONTROL MANHOLE Dwg Status: Scale: Date: Drawn: Drawing Title: Project: Client: Revision details: Rev. LEGEND: e: [email protected] DO NOT Notes: Dougall Baillie Associates Ltd. 1. DRAINAGE PROPOSALS ARE SUBJECT TO RE-ROUTED TO THE COMBINED SEWER. c Copyright of this document is reserved by FLOWS. DRAINAGE TO BE INVESTIGATED MINIMISE PRE-DEVELOPMENT ENQUIRY TO SCOTTISH WATER. 3. RUTHERGLEN HEALTH CENTRE CAR PARK CLUB ROOF AND HARDSTANDING TO RESTRICT CLASHES WITH NEW SURFACE WATER PIPES. 2. EXISTING COMBINED SEWER TO BE DIVERTED 4. ATTENUATION TO BE PROVIDED FOR TENNIS TO BE INVESTIGATED AND ANY CONNECTIONS w: www.dougallbaillie.com 3 Glenfield Road, Kelvin DRAINAGE LAYOUT INDOOR COURTS OVERTON PARK TENNIS CLUB RUTHERGLEN LAWN 1:500 04.09.20 K.D. East Kilbride G75 0RA NOMTO B/W INFORMATION scale from this drawing t: 01355 266480 f: 01355 221991 PROPOSED COMBINED SEWER EXISTING SCOTTISH WATER SURFACE PROPOSED SURFACE WATER DRAINAGE FILTER TRENCH COMBINED SEWER TO BE ABANDONED WATER DRAINAGE @A1 Dougall Baillie Associates Baillie Dougall civil. No: Dwg. Date: Checked:

structural.

20787-SK-02 04.09.20 F.G.A. transportation. Print: Date: By:

water management. Date: Checked:

APPENDIX 2 Site Plan showing proposed car parking solution [1 Page] BasedpermissionStationeryLicenceAL? 100018007 upon No. ofOffice. the the Ordnance Controller Crown CopyrightSurvey of H.M. map Reserved. with the

PICNIC AREA

CYCLE PARK RETAINED

AS EXISTING

1m BIKE 2m SHELTER 2 x Padel Courts

2m 1m Changing/Cafe 4 x Acrylic Tennis Courts Tennis Acrylic x 4

BIKE SHELTER

REVOLVING DOOR

ENTRANCE AT BOTH 1m SIDES

1m 8m 2m

EXISTING TREES TO BE RETAINED

14 NEW CAR PARKING SPACES Dwg Status: Scale: Date: Drawn: Drawing Title: Project: Client: Revision details: Rev. A e: [email protected] DO NOT Notes: Dougall Baillie Associates Ltd. c Copyright of this document is reserved by w: www.dougallbaillie.com .NEW PARKING SPACES COMPRISE OF 10no 1. 3 Glenfield Road, Kelvin REVISED TO SUIT CLIENTS COMMENTS. SITE PLAN INDOOR COURTS OVERTON PARK TENNIS CLUB RUTHERGLEN LAWN 1:500 04.09.20 K.D. East Kilbride G75 0RA NOMTO B/W INFORMATION NEW SAPCES & 4no RELOCATED HEALTH CENTRE SPACES. scale from this drawing t: 01355 266480 f: 01355 221991 ROUTE THROUGH CAR PARK DENOTES 1.2m WIDE PEDESTRIAN DENOTES NEW CYCLEWAY/FOOTWAY @A1 Dougall Baillie Associates Baillie Dougall civil. No: Dwg. Date: Checked:

structural.

20787-SK-01 04.09.20 F.G.A. transportation. Print: Date: By: 07.09.20 K.D.

water management. Date: Checked: 07.09.20 F.G.A.

APPENDIX 3 Rutherglen LTC Articles of Association Pages 1 Rutherglen LTC Articles of Association 8 2 Rutherglen LTC Changes to Articles of Association to 4 clarify, amongst other things, the “not for profit” status of the club and that the Directors, Company Secretary, and Management Committee positions are not entitled to remuneration. TOTAL: 12 Company Number: SC544114

The Companies Act 2006

PRIVATE COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE

ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION

RUTHERGLEN LAWN TENNIS CLUB LTD

Incorporated on 30th August 2016

Oswalds A Jordans Group Company 4th Floor 115 George Street Edinburgh EH2 4JN

www.oswalds.co.uk Tel: +44 (0)131 226 8280

THE COMPANIES ACT 2006

PRIVATE COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE

ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION OF

RUTHERGLEN LAWN TENNIS CLUB LTD

1. PRELIMINARY

1.1 The model articles of association for private companies limited by guarantee contained in Schedule 2 to the Companies (Model Articles) Regulations 2008 (SI 2008 No. 3229) (the "Model Articles") shall apply to the Company save in so far as they are excluded or modified hereby and such Model Articles and the articles set out below shall be the Articles of Association of the Company (the "Articles").

1.2 In these Articles, any reference to a provision of the Companies Act 2006 shall be deemed to include a reference to any statutory modification or re-enactment of that provision for the time being in force.

1.3 Model Articles 2, 7(2), 3, 9(2), 14, 19(5), 22(1) and 30(4) do not apply to the Company.

1.4 The headings used in these Articles are included for the sake of convenience only and shall be ignored in construing the language or meaning of these Articles.

1.5 In these Articles, unless the context otherwise requires, references to nouns in the plural form shall be deemed to include the singular and vice versa, references to one gender include all genders and references to persons include bodies corporate and unincorporated associations.

2. DEFINED TERMS

2.1 Model Article 1 shall be varied by the inclusion of the following definitions:

"appointor" has the meaning given in Article 11.1;

"secretary" means the secretary of the Company, if any, appointed in accordance with Article 10.1 or any other person appointed to perform the duties of the secretary of the Company, including a joint, assistant or deputy secretary; and

"working day" means a day that is not a Saturday or Sunday, Christmas Day, Good Friday or any day that is a bank holiday under the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971 in the part of the United Kingdom where the Company is registered.

3. LIABILITY OF MEMBERS

3.1 The liability of each member is limited to £1, being the amount that each member undertakes to contribute to the assets of the Company in the event of its being wound up while he is a member or within one year after he ceases to be a member, for -

(a) payment of the Company’s debts and liabilities contracted before he ceases to be a member,

(b) payment of the costs, charges and expenses of winding up, and

UCOPT13 4. OBJECTS

4.1 The Company's objects are to promote the playing of social and competitive tennis within the community of Burnside and Rutherglen.

5. DIRECTORS’ GENERAL AUTHORITY

5.1 The directors of the Company have control over the affairs and property of the Company and are responsible for management of the Company’s business. The directors have authority to exercise any powers of the Company which are necessary and/or incidental to the promotion of any or all of the objects of the Company set out at Article 4.1.

6. NO DISTRIBUTION TO MEMBERS

6.1 The income and property of the Company shall be applied solely towards the promotion of its objects as set out at Article 4.1 and no part of such property and income may be paid or transferred, directly or indirectly, by way of dividend, bonus or otherwise howsoever by way of profit, to members of the Company.

6.2 Nothing in this Article 6 prevents any payment in good faith by the Company:-

(a) of reasonable remuneration to any member who is an officer or employee of the Company or who otherwise provides any services to the Company;

(b) of interest on money lent by any member of the Company at a reasonable and proper rate per annum not exceeding 2 per cent less than the published base lending rate of a clearing bank to be selected by the directors;

(d) of fees, remuneration or other benefit in money or money's worth to any company of which a member may also be a member holding not more than 1% of the issued share capital of that company;

(e) to any director (or alternate director) of expenses under Model Article 20 (as modified by Article 11.2 hereof); or

(f) of any premium in respect of any such insurance as is permitted by Model Article 39.

6.3 If upon the winding-up or dissolution of the Company there remains, after the satisfaction of all its debts and liabilities, any property whatsoever, the same shall not be paid to or distributed among the members of the Company generally, but shall be given or transferred to:

(a) a body or bodies having objects similar to the objects of the Company and which shall prohibit the distribution of its or their income and property to an extent at least as great as is imposed on the Company by virtue of this Article 6;

(b) if and so far as effect cannot be given to the provisions of paragraph (a), then to a body or bodies the objects of which are the promotion of charity and anything incidental or conducive thereto;

such body or bodies to be determined by the members of the Company at or before the time of dissolution (whether or not a recipient body is a member of the Company).

7. PROCEEDINGS OF DIRECTORS

7.1 The maximum and minimum number of directors may be determined from time to time by ordinary resolution. Subject to and in default of any such determination there shall

UC0PT13 be no maximum number of directors and the minimum number of directors shall be one. Whenever the minimum number of directors is one, the general rule about decision-making by the directors does not apply, and the sole director may take decisions without regard to any of the provisions of the Articles (including Model Article 11(2)) relating to directors’ decision-making.

7.2 Subject to Article 7.3, notwithstanding the fact that a proposed decision of the directors concerns or relates to any matter in which a director has, or may have, directly or indirectly, any kind of interest whatsoever, that director may participate in the decision- making process for both quorum and voting purposes.

7.3 If the directors propose to exercise their power under section 175(4)(b) of the Companies Act 2006 to authorise a director's conflict of interest, the director facing the conflict is not to be counted as participating in the decision to authorise the conflict for quorum or voting purposes.

7.4 Subject to the provisions of the Companies Act 2006, and provided that (if required to do so by the said Act) he has declared to the directors the nature and extent of any direct or indirect interest of his, a director, notwithstanding his office:-

(a) may be a party to or otherwise interested in, any transaction or arrangement with the Company or in which the Company is otherwise interested;

(b) may be a director or other officer or an employee of, or a party to any transaction or arrangement with, or otherwise interested in, any subsidiary of the Company or body corporate in which the Company is interested; and

(c) is not accountable to the Company for any remuneration or other benefits which he derives from any such office or employment or from any such transaction or arrangement or from any interest in any such body corporate and no transaction or arrangement is liable to be avoided on the ground of any such remuneration, benefit or interest.

8. UNANIMOUS DECISIONS

8.1 Model Article 8(2) is amended by the deletion of the words "copies of which have been signed by each eligible director" and the substitution of the following "where each eligible director has signed one or more copies of it" in its place. Model Article 8(2) shall be read accordingly.

9. TERMINATION OF DIRECTOR'S APPOINTMENT

9.1 In addition to the events terminating a director's appointment set out in Model Article 18, a person ceases to be a director as soon as that person has for more than six consecutive months been absent without permission of the directors from meetings of directors held during that period and the directors make a decision to vacate that person's office.

10. SECRETARY

10.1 The directors may appoint a secretary to the Company for such period, for such remuneration and upon such conditions as they think fit; and any secretary so appointed by the directors may be removed by them.

11. ALTERNATE DIRECTORS

11.1 (a) Any director (the "appointor") may appoint as an alternate any other director, or any other person approved by a decision of the directors, to:-

(i) exercise that director's powers; and

(ii) carry out that director's responsibilities,

UC0PT13 in relation to the taking of decisions by the directors in the absence of the alternate's appointor.

(b) Any appointment or removal of an alternate must be effected by notice in writing to the Company signed by the appointor, or in any other manner approved by the directors. The notice must:-

(i) identify the proposed alternate; and

(ii) in the case of a notice of appointment, contain a statement signed by the proposed alternate that he is willing to act as the alternate of his appointor.

11.2 (a) An alternate director has the same rights to participate in any directors' meeting or decision of the directors reached in accordance with Model Article 8, as the alternate's appointor.

(b) Except as these Articles specify otherwise, alternate directors:-

(i) are deemed for all purposes to be directors;

(ii) are liable for their own acts or omissions;

(iii) are subject to the same restrictions as their appointors; and

(iv) are not deemed to be agents of or for their appointors.

(i) may be counted as participating for the purposes of determining whether a quorum is participating (but only if that person's appointor is not participating); and

(ii) may sign or otherwise signify his agreement in writing to a written resolution in accordance with Model Article 8 (but only if that person's appointor has not signed or otherwise signified his agreement to such written resolution).

No alternate may be counted as more than one director for such purposes.

(d) An alternate director is not entitled to receive any remuneration from the Company for serving as an alternate director except such part of the remuneration payable to that alternate's appointor as the appointor may direct by notice in writing made to the Company.

(e) Model Article 20 is modified by the deletion of each of the references to "directors" and the replacement of each such reference with "directors and/or any alternate directors".

11.3 An alternate director's appointment as an alternate terminates:-

(a) when his appointor revokes the appointment by notice to the Company in writing specifying when it is to terminate;

(b) on the occurrence in relation to the alternate of any event which, if it occurred in relation to the alternate's appointor would result in the termination of the appointor's office as director;

(d) when his appointor's appointment as a director terminates.

UC0PT13 12. TERMINATION OF MEMBERSHIP

12.1 A member may withdraw from membership of the Company by giving notice to the Company in writing; and upon receipt by the Company of such notice, that member's membership is terminated immediately.

13. WRITTEN RESOLUTION OF MEMBERS

13.1 (a) Subject to Article 13.1(b), a written resolution of members passed in accordance with Part 13 of the Companies Act 2006 is as valid and effectual as a resolution passed at a general meeting of the Company.

(b) The following may not be passed as a written resolution and may only be passed at a general meeting:-

(i) a resolution under section 168 of the Companies Act 2006 for the removal of a director before the expiration of his period of office; and

(ii) a resolution under section 510 of the Companies Act 2006 for the removal of an auditor before the expiration of his period of office.

13.2 On a written resolution every member has one vote.

14. NOTICE OF GENERAL MEETINGS

14.1 (a) Every notice convening a general meeting of the Company must comply with the provisions of:-

(i) section 311 of the Companies Act 2006 as to the provision of information regarding the time, date and place of the meeting and the general nature of the business to be dealt with at the meeting; and

(ii) section 325(1) of the Companies Act 2006 as to the giving of information to members regarding their right to appoint proxies.

(b) Every notice of, or other communication relating to, any general meeting which any member is entitled to receive must be sent to each of the directors and to the auditors (if any) for the time being of the Company.

15. QUORUM AT GENERAL MEETINGS

15.1 (a) If and for so long as the Company has one member only who is entitled to vote on the business to be transacted at a general meeting, that member present at the meeting in person or by proxy or, in the event that the member is a corporation, by corporate representative, is a quorum.

(b) If and for so long as the Company has two or more members entitled to vote on the business to be transacted at a general meeting, two of such members, each of whom is present at the meeting in person or by proxy or, in the event that any member present is a corporation, by corporate representative, are a quorum.

"If, at the adjourned general meeting, a quorum is not present within half an hour from the time appointed therefor or, alternatively, a quorum ceases to be present, the adjourned meeting shall be dissolved.".

UC0PT13 16. VOTING AT GENERAL MEETINGS

16.1 On a vote on a resolution at a general meeting on a show of hands or on a poll, every member present in person, by proxy or (being a corporation) by corporate representative has one vote.

16.2 Polls must be taken at the general meeting at which they are demanded and in such manner as the chairman directs.

17. DELIVERY OF PROXY VOTES

17.1 Model Article 31(1) is modified, such that a "proxy notice" (as defined in Model Article 31(1)) and any authentication of it demanded by the directors must be received at an address specified by the Company in the proxy notice not less than 48 hours before the time for holding the meeting or adjourned meeting at which the proxy appointed pursuant to the proxy notice proposes to vote; and any proxy notice received at such address less than 48 hours before the time for holding the meeting or adjourned meeting shall be invalid.

18. COMMUNICATIONS

18.1 Subject to the provisions of the Companies Act 2006, a document or information may be sent or supplied by the Company to a person by being made available on a website.

18.2 A member whose registered address is not within the United Kingdom and who gives to the Company an address within the United Kingdom at which notices may be sent to him or an address to which notices may be sent by electronic means is entitled to have notices sent to him at that address, but otherwise no such member is entitled to receive any notices from the Company.

18.3 (a) If the Company sends or supplies notices or other documents by first class post and the Company proves that such notices or other documents were properly addressed, prepaid and posted, the intended recipient is deemed to have received such notices or other documents 48 hours after posting.

(b) If the Company sends or supplies notices or other documents by electronic means and the Company proves that such notices or other documents were properly addressed, the intended recipient is deemed to have received such notices or other documents 24 hours after they were sent or supplied.

(c) If the Company sends or supplies notices or other documents by means of a website, the intended recipient is deemed to have received such notices or other documents when such notices or other documents first appeared on the website or, if later, when the intended recipient first received notice of the fact that such notices or other documents were available on the website.

(d) For the purposes of this Article 18.3, no account shall be taken of any part of a day that is not a working day.

19. COMPANY SEALS

19.1 Model Article 35(1) is modified, such that any common seal of the Company may be used by the authority of the directors or any committee of directors.

19.2 Model Article 35(3) is modified by the deletion of all words which follow the "," after the word "document" and their replacement with "the document must also be signed by:-

(a) one authorised person in the presence of a witness who attests the signature; or

(b) two authorised persons".

UC0PT13 20. RULES

20.1 (a) The directors may make such rules as they consider necessary or convenient for the proper conduct and management of the Company and for the purposes of prescribing the classes of and conditions of membership. In particular, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, the directors may make rules regulating:-

(i) the admission and classification of members of the Company, and the rights and privileges of such members, the conditions of membership and the terms on which members may resign or have their membership terminated and the entrance fees, subscriptions and other fees or payments to be made by members;

(ii) the conduct of members of the Company in relation to one another, and to the Company's officers and employees;

(iii) the setting aside of the whole or any part or parts of the Company's premises at any particular time or times or for any particular purpose or purposes;

(iv) the procedure at general meetings and meetings of the directors and committees of the Company (in so far as such procedure is not governed by these Articles); and

(v) any and all other matters as are commonly the subject matter of company rules.

(b) The directors must adopt such means as they consider sufficient to bring to the notice of members of the Company all rules made under this Article.

(c) Any rules made by the directors under this Article will be valid and binding as against all members of the Company for so long as such rules are in force.

(d) The Company in general meeting may alter or repeal any rules made by the directors in accordance with this Article.

20.2 Nothing in this Article permits the directors of the Company to make any rules which are inconsistent with or affect or repeal anything in these Articles or in any resolution passed by members of the Company or agreement to which Chapter 3 of Part 3 of the Companies Act 2006 applies.

UC0PT13

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APPENDIX 4 Current Coaching Programme [1 Page]

104

APPENDIX 5 Performance Programme [1 Page]

106

APPENDIX 6 Schools Tennis Festival [1 Page]

108

APPENDIX 7 Expression of interest from Whisk to operate Community Café [19 Pages] 2022

PROJECT Proposal

Phone Email Website

+44 7891 635 437 [email protected] whiskit.co.uk

TABLE OF CONTENT

Message from Naomi 06

About Whisk 07

Our Proposal 08

Menu 10

Case Studies 12

Whisk Local Community Events 14

References 16 P.4 ++ proposal

CAFE

Professional Title CAFE

BAKERY P.6 ++ proposal

MESSAGE FROM NAOMI

The new covered tennis courts and facilities in Overtoun Park is part of an ambitious and exciting project that will open tennis up to the local community. It is creative by design, vibrant in execution and inclusive in nature and promises to open the space, up to people of all ages and abilities.

I have been serving our local community for just over 16 years now - from small orders taken from our home kitchen, to serving directly from our bakery/cafe.

Throughout these years I have been able to engage directly with the local community, by organising and hosting seasonal events, working with local charities and care homes, and teaching baking and cooking classes.

The proposed new facilities from Rutherglen LTC will turn a disused plot of land into a much needed vibrant community hub and I would love the opportunity to share my years experience in catering, hospitality and events organising within a new, exciting and ambitious space in Rutherglen.

Naomi Saunders P.7 ++ proposal

ABOUT US

Creative - Quality - Local

We are an independent, Cooking (and eating) family run, Café and Bakery. seasonal, freshly baked Since we opened back in hand-made goods is at the 2004, Whisk has grown in core of Whisk’s continued size and popularity, catering success. It’s also the reason for Corporate Events, Local our customers return time Functions, Store Openings, and time again and ask us Festivals, Political functions to cater for their events. and Charity Events, but we In all our years of cooking, continue to engage directly baking and hosting classes with the local community, in the community, we have hosting parties, organising learned that baking together local events, taking baking allows people to de-stress classes as well as preparing , gain confidence, improve delicious cakes, scones, their mental health - and pastries, afternoon teas (and have fun! coffees) from our cafe and on- We believe Overtoun 2022 site bakery. will help us bring that message to the community. P.8 ++ proposal

OUR PROPOSAL - Catering for Everyone This proposal is for Whisk to assume operation of a dedicated cafe space within Rutherglen LTC’s proposed facilities situated in Overtoun Park. The cafe will be housed within a shared-space, Shipping Container style Clubhouse. This community cafe will comprise: a dedicated serving counter, on-site food prep station, coffee machine, small fridge, and a low-profile commercial convection oven. This will allow for a cost effective and space saving solution whilst keeping the quality and standards high. We aim to provide a highly creative, healthy, locally sourced, seasonal menu that caters to everyone. Along with our daily menu, we would like to create, and cater for, unique, one- off Special Events. We realsied the demand and the uplifting experience this was for the local community. These offer a wonderful way to engage with the local community and are always incredibly popular. We would create a range of events that could cater for the whole demographic of the local area. For some residents, this proved to be a real highlight to their month. An example could be a Mexican Street Food event, and we would create a themed menu around it. P.9 ++ proposal

OUR PROPOSAL - Catering for Everyone

With the space we will work directly with Grow 73 to expand upon their succesful initiative that allows the local community to grow vegetables and fruit in raised beds and how food and gardening are proven to improve mental health. Cooking classes with families where they cook with the fresh prouce from Grow73. We have learned from our experience that baking and cooking classes have a strong, positive effect and help bring the community together in a positive environment. Recently, we have started a new project to support local residents with mental health issues to create a Recipe Book from all the things they have learned to cook from the garden. This has been an uplifting experience and has had a positive impact. The Cafe at Rutherglen LTC’s covered tennis facility in Overtoun Park would provide an opportunity for them to work with us and engage with the public that they would not have otherwise. P.10

Menu Outline Whisk MENU

Our Menu reflects our core values: high-quality, locally sourced, hand-made food that changes seasonally.

We aim to offer a range of healthy, tasty and affordable food - available all day. Whisk MENU Gluten Free Bread and Pancakes French Toast and Bacon Available Hot Filled Rolls Porridge Pots Vegan Breakfast Bagel - Salmon and Scrmbled Egg Soup of the Day eg Minnestrone Vegan Quiche Lorraine Home Made Sausage Rolls Vegan Option Available Community Baked Bread Sandwhiches - Cheese and Coleslaw Hot Dish of the Day: Chili con Carne Kids French Toast Pancakes with Nutella and Banana Mini Pizza Mini Mac and Cheese Wee Drinks: Little Smoothies, a wee Hot Chocolate or a Wee Milkshake Cakes Cakes changed monthly based on seasons Scones and Home Made Jam Empire Biscuits Double Chocolate Brownies Victoria Sponge Cinnamon Buns Vegan Option Available Carrot Cake Drinks Tea Herbal Tea - English Breakfast - Earl Grey Milkshake Strawberry Marshmallow - Mint and Vanilla - Salted Caramel Coffee Americano - Flat White - Latte,- Cappuccino - Espresso - Mocha Seasonal Special eg Gingerbread Latte P.12 ++ proposal

CASE Catered for Flagship Store Opening for: STUDIES The White Company

Whisk were hired to cater We were responsible for for >100 people (Press, hiring staff, hiring equipment, Customers and Celebrities) decoration, arranging logistics. at a champagne reception to Created a bespoke, themed celebrate the opening of their menu creating high-end new Flagship store in Scotland. Canapes and Champagne Reception. The menu was to reflect the minimal, clean and fresh nature of their products. Since that succesful launch, our services have been retained by the company for many social events. P.13 ++ proposal

Other Events

As well as large-scale, corporate events, Whisk are also highly- engaged with local community events, including Calderwood Fayre, Landemer Day, Alzheimer’s Awareness, The Richmond Fellowship, CamGlen Radio, local fund raisers, Universal Connections, Lifestyle Centre, Grow73, Number 18, Healthy and Happy, Govan Help, Impact Arts, Rutherglen Town Hall, Weddings and Ceremonies. P.14 ++ proposal Whisk’s Local Community Events

Summer Fayre 2019

Summer Fayre 2018 P.15 ++ proposal

Local Events

Christmas Fayre 2019

Christmas Fayre 2018 P.16 ++ proposal P.17 ++ proposal P.18 ++ proposal

Thank-you BAND NAME

Phone Email Website

+44 7891 635 437 [email protected] whiskit.co.uk

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APPENDIX 8 Expression of interest from String Sports to operate Tennis Shop [1 Page]

String Sports Limited (David Lloyd Leisure) 242 Netherton Road Glasgow G13 1BJ

01413393996 [email protected] 8 September 2020

Gareth Ellor President - Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Club

Dear Gareth, Please consider this letter to be a formal expression of interest in the proposed retail unit available at your Overtoun Covered Courts development.

Having operated a successful retail business out of the north of Glasgow for the past 10 years, we see this as an opportunity to better serve our customer base down in the south side. Being specialists in the retail of racket sport’s equipment, apparel and footwear we see ourselves being a good ﬁt for the type facility you’re proposing, while also appealing to the wider community with the big brands in sportswear we currently stock. We hope our experience, reputation and links to the racket sports community will mean that not only will we be able to operate a successful business out of the Overtoun facility, but also be a draw for the local tennis community, thus increasing footfall and interest in the club and the courts.

As well as our retail experience we also bring a wealth of personal experience from the world of tennis. Having been heavily involved in the running of a tennis club myself, holding such posts as treasurer and membership secretary, while also having coached at various venues across the West of Scotland, I’m conﬁdent that we will be a positive force in helping to deliver on the club’s ethos, to better serve the local community by promoting and increasing participation in tennis and sport in general. We’re excited at the opportunity of getting involved in the project, I look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Lisk - Managing Director String Sports Limited

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APPENDIX 9 Expression of interest from Karen Gibson to operate Physio/Sports Injury Clinic [1 Page] PHYSIOTHERAPY AT RUTHERGLEN LAWN TENNIS CLUB

Graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University in 2004 with a first class honours degree in Physiotherapy, I completed all rotations as a physiotherapist within the NHS from paediatrics to stroke to care of the elderly before embarking on a childhood dream and following a career in professional football beginning as an academy physiotherapist with Rangers Football Club and leading me to be Head of Medical Services at Heart of Midlothian Football Club.

With my vast experience, I am proposing to provide physiotherapy services to the community by way of a physiotherapy and sports injuries clinic within Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Club.

Coinciding with the Club’s plans to offer a “Shipping Container” style clubhouse with associated facilities, I propose a “Shipping Container” Physiotherapy and Sports Injuries Clinic. Whereby members of the tennis Club alongside members of the wider community, have access to top class assessment, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of wide ranging conditions from acute sporting injuries to chronic low back pain and osteoarthritis. My experience would allow me to offer a service for all from paediatric to elderly. Treatments available would include hands-on physiotherapy, sports massage, mobilisations, manipulations, acupuncture, joint injection therapy and exercise prescription.

Given the current covid crisis and inability for NHS outpatient physiotherapy clinics to function as normal, physiotherapy waiting times are rising by the day, as are wait times for elective surgeries. As such, I believe that a private physiotherapy clinic would be welcomed by the local community. With it’s excellent location, I would expect a patient caseload to include not only members of the tennis club but those who attend groups within Overtoun Park such as walking groups, jogging clubs, exercise groups and football coaching. With my long standing career in football, I would expect to see local members of junior football clubs such as Rutherglen Glencairn. Of course the service would be all encompassing and open to all and I would very much hope to see patients from Rutherglen Health Centre, helping to cut their wait times for physiotherapy services.

The beauty of the compact modular shipping container means that as demand for the service grows, so can the facility. With my strong network of contacts in the world of elite sports medicine, the physiotherapy clinic could grow to offer consultations with podiatrists, osteopaths and sports and exercise medicine consultants. Responding to demand, the clinic could offer a very much full time service including evenings and weekends. Karen Gibson

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APPENDIX 10 Expression of interest from Andy Cornwell to provide a Strength & Conditioning coaching service [1 Page] Andrew Cornwell 0/1 1 Meadowside Quay Square Glasgow G11 6BS, 07890 328 863, [email protected] 25th October 2020

Gareth Ellor Club President Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Club 21-23 Viewpark Drive Rutherglen Glasgow G73 3QE Dear Gareth, I am writing to express my interest in using one of the “Shipping Containers” within your proposed “Covered Courts” facility in Overtoun Park, Rutherglen, as a base for my start-up Strength and Conditioning (S&C) business. This business is predominately aimed at youth athletes and athletic development, but will also be available for anyone seeking performance-based coaching and development. This service would be available to all Rutherglen LTC members, all other clubs, organisations etc. using the new facility as well as the general public. I would set-up a gym area in one of the “Shipping Containers” using the aesthetic of the proposed Overtoun facility to best select equipment that would fit into this and best serve the community hub I am very excited about becoming part of. I graduated from the University of Glasgow with an MSc in Sport and Exercise Science and Medicine in 2017, following my graduation from the University of South Wales with a BSc (Hons) in Sport and Exercise Science in 2016. Since graduating, I have coached at various levels of performance from those looking to live a healthier lifestyle to those preparing for elite competition, including the Junior Rugby Union World Cup and Commonwealth and Olympic Games. As you know, I am currently working with Rutherglen LTC as part of your Tennis Academy, ensuring all of the junior athletes are prepared to be able to compete at a national level and develop, maximise and then realise their own athletic potential. There is a huge demand for S&C support outside of elite sport. S&C is more than just coaching how to complete exercises - it teaches you how to look after yourself to achieve your health, fitness and performance goals, whatever they may be, and equips you to continue this lifestyle beyond coached sessions. This is completed using scientifically robust methods and testing to create and implement appropriate training programmes and re-testing at suitable intervals to determine the effectiveness of these and the benefits achieved as a result. There is a concerning issue with obesity in Scotland, with an average of 2 out of every 3 people in South Lanarkshire being overweight or obese (higher than the national average). The statistics around obesity and unhealthy living, combined with the negative effects the recent COVID-19 pandemic has had on mental health, as highlighted in the recent study by Dr John Mitchell, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, paint a very bleak picture. There must therefore be a strong focus on both physical and mental health improvement in the adult population of the local and wider community and exercise has been proven to have a hugely positive impact on this. Being able to influence both physical and mental health as early as possible to promote healthy living and exercise for life are the key principles of my vision for S&C coaching provided as part of the Rutherglen LTC Overtoun Park Community Hub. The close proximity of this facility to the Rutherglen Primary Care Centre and their pioneering “Green Health Initiative” represents a hugely exciting opportunity to make transformational change within the local community. I look forward to exploring this opportunity further with you and the team if you are successful in agreeing “Heads of Terms” with South Lanarkshire Council and wish you all the very best of luck with this. Kind Regards, Andrew Cornwell.

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APPENDIX 11 Letter of support from Grow73 [1 Page]

SCO48411

Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Club Gareth Ellor,

Overtoun Park Covered Tennis court proposal

I am writing to you to express Grow 73‘s support to your proposed project in Overtoun Park.

Overtoun Park is already a well used park but with the introduction of community facilities such as those proposed by RLTC and Grow 73’s respective projects the park could become an important community hub for a wide range of activities to benefit health and foster community cohesion. The good use of our green spaces is even more crucial in these uncertain times of Covid 19 when maintaining and promoting good physical and mental health has to be a priority.

Grow 73’s community asset transfer application for the lease of 3 disused bowling greens in Overtoun park to develop as a community garden was approved in March 2019 which means that our projects will be adjacent to one another. Being future neighbours, we are already developing a reciprocal supportive relationship to achieve our respective visions and sharing an ethos of encouraging community engagement and activity to promote healthy and sustainable lifestyles.

These ideas include:  Produce from the Grow 73 community garden being routed directly into the RLTC community café creating a very healthy, sustainable and ethical food chain.  The RLTC community café providing a “Veg Box” scheme allowing visitors to help themselves to fresh fruit and vegetables, ensuring a controlled, managed outlet for produce grown by Grow 73.  Installation of a large water bowser next to the downpipe in the corner of the RLTC building nearest Grow 73’s site into which rainwater will be diverted. This will provide a source of recycled water which Grow 73 can use for irrigation.  RLTC potentially providing a spur off their electrical system to create some lighting in the Grow 73 community gardens.

Grow 73 has always looked at building strong partnerships with local organisations in order to share resources and avoid duplication of effort, to look at creative ways in which we can complement the work of other organisations, taking joint approaches to funding and, by doing so, ensuring that community projects have the maximum impact.

Grow 73, therefore, is fully supportive of RLTC’s covered courts project in Overtoun Park and looks forward to developing our partnership.

Best of luck on your journey!

Kind regards

Eugenie Eugenie Aroutcheff Community gardener and Co founder Grow 73

Address: 149 Dukes Road, G73 5AE Rutherglen Mob: 07834240086 Email: [email protected] FaceBook: @Grow73 Twitter: @Grow_73 Web: www.grow73.org

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APPENDIX 12 Expression of interest from Glasgow South Table Tennis Club [2 Pages]

Kings Park Secondary School, 14 Fetlar Drive, GLASGOW, G44 5BL

Glasgow South Table Tennis Club c/o Iain Rhind 20 Oak Fern Drive Stewartfield EAST KILBRIDE G74 4UF

18 September 2020

Dear Gareth,

Further to our recent telephone conversation I am writing on behalf of Glasgow South Table Tennis Club (GSTTC) to confirm my club’s interest and support for your proposal on the development of an indoor Tennis and Sports Hub in Overtoun Park.

GSTTC is a community club based at Kings Park Secondary School. Immediately prior to lockdown in March we were running sessions four evenings per week from Monday to Thursday with players from primary school age through to retirees participating, player standards ranging from complete beginners through to junior and veteran international level. On a typical week we had between 40 and 50 people participating.

The club was established in 2009 and has attracted many school age players since then from the Rutherglen area from both Stonelaw High and Trinity High. However, the majority of our players come from Glasgow’s South side up through Clarkston, Giffnock and Newton Mearns. We have attained Glasgow Life ClubMark accreditation hence demonstrating high standards in Code of Conduct, Equal Opportunities, Child Protection etc. We are a club that puts excellence at the core of our approach and encourage all our members to live up to this.

The Rutherglen area currently does not have a table tennis club affiliated to Table Tennis Scotland. Your proposal for Overtoun Park would provide a facility where this situation could be changed. As we discussed, one of the paddle courts could potentially provide a suitable area for structured table tennis sessions to take place with 5 tables in play for high performance and up to 9 for social play. Having this available for a table tennis club 2 or 3 evenings a week would provide a terrific

Kings Park Secondary School, 14 Fetlar Drive, GLASGOW, G44 5BL facility to build up a local table tennis club in Rutherglen. I would also point out that Castlemilk Sports Centre was running a 50+ table tennis club prior to lockdown. There is a wealth of medical evidence that supports playing table tennis is very effective in improving both mental and physical health in the older population. The Overtoun Park facility could easily host a 50+ daytime session bringing the opportunity of health benefits to a section of the local population. Add in having one or two tables up and available for drop-in recreational play and this creates a superb table tennis hub.

As we discussed I would be interested in exploring exactly how my own club could assist you with a table tennis development strategy once you are further down the road with your own plans for Overtoun Park. I think there is every possibility that between us we could establish a vibrant table tennis community in Rutherglen.

Best Regards

Iain Rhind Chair (Interim) Glasgow South Table Tennis Club 07505 426985

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APPENDIX 13 Expression of interest from Cambuslang Harriers [1 Page] Cambuslang Harriers (est. 1948) (The red and white team)

Dear Gareth

Cambuslang Harriers

On behalf of Cambuslang Harriers we are pleased to confirm our support for your plans for a community based covered Hub at Overtoun Public Park in Rutherglen.

As a locally based club with around 100 active members ranging from age 10 to adults the idea of having a covered facility to act as hub for community groups is something that we would highly welcome and embrace.

At this time in our Covid19 world we are seeing how the benefits of active participation in activities that are age and stage appropriate are vitally important to people’s health, wellbeing and resilience.

The lack of a facility of this nature to cover the Rutherglen and Cambuslang area is something that we have been exploring with the Sports Council, South Lanarkshire Council and other partners as the aim to create a more healthy and vibrant community.

This new facility would be an ideal venue for some of our training groups to meet, change and securely store equipment before a park/road run, and then shower/change and socialise afterwards. In addition, our athletes could make good use of the functional, flexible floor space and equipment for strength and conditioning work, including tapping into the resident sports injury clinic and strength and conditioning coaching.

The vision of this facility forming a true community hub which can be accessed by a wide range of clubs and organisations befitting the whole community is something we very much support and we welcome the opportunity to play our part in this.

We are as a club affiliated to Scottish Athletics and adhere to their standards in terms of athlete development and with their code of conduct for all club members and volunteers. If these plans come to fruition we will fully comply with the standards set for its use taking account of the need to be aware that the location has households, a care home and facilities close by.

Cambuslang Harriers has a proud reputation of being a community-based club and is supportive of this venture. We look forward to exploring this opportunity further with you if you are successful in agreeing “Heads of Terms” with South Lanarkshire Council and wish you all the very best of luck with this.

Yours sincerely

Des Dickson

Des Dickson Club President, Cambuslang Harriers

Cambuslang Harriers – Proud to be red and white

141

APPENDIX 14 Letters of support from Community Groups/Organisations Pages 1 Healthy n Happy 1 2 Enable 1 3 Overtoun Park Bowling Club 1 4 Rutherglen Bankhead Tenants & Residents Association 1 TOTAL: 4

25th September 2020

To whom it may concern

Proposals for covered tennis courts and a community hub facility within Overtoun Park

I am writing to express our support for Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Club’s proposals for covered tennis courts and a community hub facility within Overtoun Park, Rutherglen.

The proposals are focussed on improving local assets and providing new opportunities for resident of all ages and backgrounds. This supports our own vision of Cambuslang and Rutherglen becoming the healthiest and happiest places to live in Scotland.

We do hope that the proposals receive favourable consideration.

Yours sincerely

Brendan Rooney Executive Director

Rutherglen Bankhead Tenants and Residents Association

Gareth Ellor 4 October 2020 Club President Rutherglen LTC 25 Viewpark Drive Rutherglen G73 3QE

Dear Gareth,

The Association would like to take this opportunity to support the Club’s proposed development at Overtoun Park, Rutherglen.

Our committee are particularly keen to support the project due to:

 The promotion of sport and wellbeing in the proposal  The promotion of community involvement, and  The promotion of community facilities available to all

We wish you every success in getting the proposal through the planning process at SLC, and stand ready to offer any support you require.

Thanks

Paul McLaughlin Treasurer 0141 643 2126 [email protected]

Chairperson: Mrs C Nisbet Treasurer: Mr. P. McLaughlin Secretary: Mrs G Craig

Correspondence to: Mrs Gail Craig 24 Milrig Road, Rutherglen, Glasgow G73 2NH

C:\Users\Gareth.ellor\Documents\Tennis Club\Project 100\Documentation\Proposal Appendices\Letters of Support\Rutherglen Bankhead Tenants & Residents Association.docx

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APPENDIX 15 Letter to local Tennis Clubs [2 Pages]

Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Club 21-23 Viewpark Drive Burnside Rutherglen Glasgow G73 3QE 20th August 2020 Dear fellow South Lanarkshire Tennis Club, Rutherglen LTC – Overtoun Covered Courts As you may have heard, we’re in the early stages of developing a proposal to build some covered tennis courts in Overtoun Park, Rutherglen. In addition to providing a truly all-weather home where we can expand and develop our club, community and performance programmes, including community “pay-as-you-go” use and limited free slots to make tennis truly open and accessible to all, we want it to serve as a central hub to promote, grow and develop the game of tennis in South Lanarkshire for the benefit of all local clubs. However, whilst the driving force behind this proposed facility is tennis, we see it being much more than this. The vision for the facility is as a vibrant community hub with tennis at its heart but including other sports, past-times and community facilities open to everyone. The facility will include 4 covered tennis courts as well as “padel” tennis courts, games facility, flexible space for community use (classes, groups, meetings etc.), community café, changing and showering facilities, toilets available for public use and secure, covered bike storage. The image below provides an indication of what the facility could look like and you can learn more about the project and view more illustrative photos on our website at www.rutherglenltc.com/overtoun.

We are proposing to lease the land from South Lanarkshire Council (SLC) for 25 years to allow us to build and operate the new facility as an extension to our existing facilities off Viewpark Drive and Burnside Road. We are currently working with SLC to explore whether we can agree “Heads of Terms” on this basis. Even if we can reach an agreement, the proposal will still be subject to a full planning assessment and clearly conditional on us raising the funds to build the facility, so we are very much at an early stage and have a mountain to climb. To support this process we will shortly be launching a public consultation exercise to determine whether there is community support for the proposal and whether the facility can exist in the proposed location in a way which delivers a clear, positive benefit to the community. This will help us to shape our proposals to ensure broad community support and deliver the vibrant community hub that is central to our vision. We intend to run this public consultation over the month of September and incorporate the findings into a detailed proposal document which we would submit to SLC in October in the hope that we can agree “Heads of Terms” by the end of the year. This will then provide a two year window of opportunity and security to try and seek planning permission and the funds required to build the new facility. As part of this public consultation, we want to reach out to all clubs in South Lanarkshire, hence this letter. The purpose of this letter is primarily to advise you of the route-map we intend to follow (see below) and give you a heads-up and prior notice that if we do get “Heads of Terms” agreement, we’ll be looking to engage proactively with you in the new year to progress these plans as part of Stage 2 to hopefully benefit all participating clubs. We are not asking for any specific input from you at this early stage but are always happy to hear any comments and suggestions that you may have. STAGE 1 STAGE 2 STAGE 3 STAGE 4 Scoping & Development Detailed Design Planning Implementation

Work with SLC to agree “Head of Terms” for lease of land for 25 years for a “peppercorn” rent. Undertake ground investigation Secure Building Develop detailed proposal covering: work . Where it will be located. Warrant . What it will look like. . How it will work. Appoint Develop detailed Build Facility . How it will be managed. Collate into Contractors . The benefits it will deliver to the detailed proposal facility design community. document. . How it will be funded. Resolve any Test/Commission . How it will generate sufficient Apply for Planning income to be entirely self- Planning conditions sustaining in future. SLC Yes Permission Open agree Head of Agree Terms? constriction Determine community appetite for Secure funding programme with Official Opening facility and identify what facilities, No all relevant Ceremony services, opportunities etc. they Stakeholders would like to see within facility and, wherever possible, within overall Planning objective of project, work to include Permission & these within plans. Funding Yes secured? Collaborate open and constructively with all community organisations interested in getting involved in our No project.

We will shortly be launching this public consultation via an on-line survey and I’ll share a link to this when available. In the meantime, any questions, feedback etc. please do not hesitate to get in touch. Best regards,

Gareth Ellor Club President – Rutherglen LTC [email protected] 07368 971263

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APPENDIX 16 Letter to local residents [2 Pages]

Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Club 21-23 Viewpark Drive Burnside Rutherglen Glasgow G73 3QE 17th August 2020 Dear Neighbour, Rutherglen LTC – Overtoun Covered Courts We’re in the early stages of developing a proposal to build some covered tennis courts in Overtoun Park, Rutherglen, on the area of land between the BMX track and the Bowling Club. As you may remember, this was the site of blaes tennis courts until they were grassed-over in the 1990s. This will provide a truly all-weather home where we can expand and develop our club, community and performance programmes, including community “pay-as-you-go” use, along with free slots to make tennis truly open and accessible to all. It will also allow us to extend the free tennis programme we deliver to 13 local primary schools into the winter months giving them the opportunity to enjoy tennis on a year-round basis. However, whilst the driving force behind this proposed facility is tennis, we see it being much more than this. The vision for the facility is as a vibrant community hub with tennis at its heart but including other sports, past- times and community facilities open to everyone. The facility will include 4 covered tennis courts as well as “padel” tennis courts, games facility, flexible space for community use (classes, groups, meetings etc.), community café, changing and showering facilities, toilets available for public use and secure, covered bike storage. The image below provides an indication of what the facility could look like and you can learn more about the project and view more illustrative photos on our website at www.rutherglenltc.com/overtoun.

We are proposing to lease the land from South Lanarkshire Council (SLC) for 25 years to allow us to build and operate the new facility as an extension of our existing tennis courts off Viewpark Drive and at Burnside Road, which previously served as Burnside Tennis Club until they became derelict and we took them over and funded their complete refurbishment in 2017. We are currently working with SLC to explore whether we can agree “Heads of Terms” for such a lease. Even if we can reach an agreement, the proposal will still be subject to a full planning application and clearly conditional on us raising the funds to build the facility, so we are very much at an early stage and we have a mountain to climb. We will not progress these plans unless there is community support and that the facility can exist in the proposed location in a way which delivers a clear, positive benefit to the community. As a local resident who will be most directly impacted by these plans, your feedback and views are absolutely fundamental to this. We are therefore very keen to share our plans with you in detail to hear your thoughts and feedback, in particular, any concerns or worries you have on any aspect of the proposal. This will help us determine how we can shape our proposals to ensure broad community support and deliver the vibrant community hub that is central to our vision. In an ideal world, we’d like to do this via face-to-face meetings, either individually or in groups, but obviously physical distancing restrictions make this very difficult. We would therefore like to invite you to an on-line video- conference, via Zoom, at 19:30 on Wednesday 9th September. This will be exclusively for local residents, where we will describe our plans and allow you to provide feedback. If you would like to join this Zoom call, please e-mail or text me your name and address and I’ll send you a link. My contact details are provided below. Please note that you don’t need any special software to take part in this, just a suitable internet connection. I know not everyone is comfortable with such on-line meetings, so please feel free to join simply to listen, with your camera switched off if you wish, and you can follow-up directly with me afterwards with any questions, queries etc. Alternatively, I’d be delighted to discuss our plans on a one-to-one basis over the phone or in person, obviously adhering to social distancing protocols. Just phone, text or e-mail using the details below and we can set-up a discussion. I very much look forward to hearing back from you. Best regards,

Gareth Ellor Club President – Rutherglen LTC [email protected] 07368 971263

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APPENDIX 17 Community Survey Questionnaire [12 Pages] Thank you for taking part in this survey about Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Club’s proposals for covered tennis courts and a community hub facility within Overtoun Park, Rutherglen.

The survey is being undertaken for Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Club by an independent research company, IBP Strategy & Research. The questionnaire sets out the background to the proposal and asks for your feedback on different aspects of it at this very early stage. The findings will be used to further develop the project proposals.

The findings of this questionnaire will be used to shape a proposal from Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Club to seek a “Heads of Terms” agreement with South Lanarkshire Council to lease the land for 25 years to allow them to build the new facility. Any agreement reached will still be subject to a full planning assessment which will include comprehensive public consultation. The purpose of this questionnaire is to determine, at an early stage, whether there is appetite for such a facility within the local community and to seek feedback to help shape the plans.

Please note all information is held in confidence and no comments will be attributable to any individual, with IBP reporting back to Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Club in aggregate form only. Responses will be deleted when they are no longer needed for the purposes of this exercise. You do not have to provide your name in order to complete the survey.

The survey is configured to allow only one response per device. Should more than one person in your household wish to complete it using the same device, then please email [email protected], who will arrange for a specific link to be provided to allow others in your household to complete the survey.

More information on the project can be found at www.RutherglenLTC.com/Overtoun 1. The Proposed Facility

The vision for the facility is as a vibrant community hub with tennis at its heart but including other sports, past-times and community facilities. The facility will include 4 covered tennis courts as well as “padel” tennis courts, games facility, flexible space for community use, café, changing and showering facilities, and toilets available for public use.

The building is expected to be approximately 80m long by 40m wide with a pitched roof 9m high at the centre and 4m at the sides. It will be a simple steel frame structure with a fabric (PVC) skin. This will provide a shell to keep the rain and snow off the courts and shelter players from the elements. The space will not be heated and so will not require insulation. This keeps costs down and also minimises the facility’s carbon footprint . The intention is to have a good quality but no-frills facility that can be used all year round by as many people as possible. The “indoor” elements of the facility will be “shipping container” style, an approach that has been applied previously at the club’s Burnside courts.

The pictures below provide an illustration of the type of facility planned.

Q1.1 Which of the following elements of the proposal do you think you and / or another member of your household may be interested in?

Using the tennis courts as a member of Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Club Using the tennis courts as a member of another tennis club Using the tennis courts on a pay-as-you-play basis (with limited free access also available to encourage participation) Using the “padel” tennis courts (padel tennis is a rapidly growing sport with rules similar to tennis but payed on an indoor court about one-third the size of a tennis court) Using the games facility offering free-to-use table tennis, table football and pool Using the flexible space available for community use at low cost (e.g. dance, arts, fitness / exercise classes, community cinema, screenings of big sporting events, community meetings etc.) Using the café (which will be open to the public and offering free Wi-Fi) Access to the toilets (which will be available for public use) Using the secure, covered bicycle storage facility provided to encourage users to access facility by bike None of the above Q1.2 Should you wish, please use the space below to suggest any other facilities or activities that you think could be included in a project such as this.

Q1.3 To what extent do you think that a proposal such as this would have an impact on each of the following? Please select one option in each row. To a significant Not at all To some extent extent Increasing participation in sport

Improving people’s physical health

Improving people’s mental health Helping to bring people in the community together Enhancing people’s pride in their community

Q1.4 If you were to use the facility, how would you anticipate accessing it? Please select all that apply

Car (either as driver or passenger) Public transport Bicycle On foot Other (please say what below) 2. Location It is proposed to site the facility in Overtoun Park, Rutherglen, between the current BMX Track and Overtoun Bowling Club. This was formerly the site of 8 blaes tennis courts, which were closed and grassed over during the 1990s. The facility would take up approximately one-third of this space.

This location is illustrated below: Q2.1 Do you consider this to be a suitable location for the sort of facility proposed?

Yes No Don't Know

Q2.2 Should you wish, please give brief reasons for your answer below. 3. Possible Concerns

Q3.1 To what extent are any of the following relating to the proposal of concern to you? Please select one option in each row. Not a concern A slight concern A big concern Loss of green space

Loss of visual amenity

Parking issues

Potential for vandalism

Potential for anti-social behaviour

Noise

Light pollution

Something else (please say what below) 4. Overall Views on the Proposal

Q4.1 Overall, based on what you know currently, to what extent would you support or oppose this proposal?

Support fully Tend to support Tend to oppose Oppose fully Don't know

Q4.2 Please use the space below to make any final comments that you would like. 5. About You

The questions below will help us to understand the views of different groups of people. However, if you do not wish to answer any of these questions please just indicate that you prefer not to say.

Q5.1 Which of the following apply to you? Please select all that apply

You are a member of Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Club You are a member of another tennis club You are not a member of a tennis club but regularly play tennis You are a local resident You are a regular park user Prefer not to say

Q5.2 What gender do you identify as?

Female Male Other Prefer not to say

Q5.3 What age are you?

16 to 24 25 to 34 35 to 44 45 to 54 55 to 64 65+ Prefer not to say

Q5.4 What is your home postcode?

Prefer not to say

Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey.

Please click the "Submit" button below to return your survey response.

You will be automatically taken to a page on the Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Club website where you will have the chance, should you wish, to provide your details so that you can receive further updates about this project.

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APPENDIX 18 Community Survey Report [38 Pages]

Report

6th November 2020

Contents

Page

Summary of Key Findings

1.0 Background, Objectives and Methodology 1

2.0 Potential Usage and Impact of Facility 6

3.0 Specific Location of the Facility 17

4.0 Possible Concerns 24

5.0 Overall Views on the Proposal 27

APPENDICES (UNDER SEPARATE COVER)

1.0 Survey Questionnaire

2.0 Detailed Data Tables

3.0 Listing of Open Ended Responses

SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS

BACKGROUND, OBJECTIVES & METHODOLOGY

The survey was undertaken on an independent basis by IBP Strategy & Research (IBP) on behalf of Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Club (RLTC). It set out the background to RLTC’s proposals for covered tennis courts and a community hub facility within Overtoun Park, Rutherglen gathering feedback on different aspects of the proposals including:

 Interest in usage of the different elements of the proposed facility.  Potential benefits it could have for individuals and the community as a whole.  Specific views on the suitability of the proposed location and reasons for this.  Identification of the extent of any concerns that people had over the proposals.  Levels of overall support / opposition to the proposals.

The intention has been that these findings shape a proposal from RLTC to South Lanarkshire Council to seek an outline “Heads of Terms” agreement to lease the land for 25 years to allow RLTC to source the required funding in order to build the facility. It should be noted that any such agreement reached would be subject to a full planning assessment, which would include comprehensive public consultation. The purpose of this survey was to determine, at an early stage, whether there was appetite for such a facility within the local community and to seek feedback to help shape the plans.

The survey questionnaire was designed by IBP following an initial briefing from RLTC, with IBP seeking to ensure that appropriate background information was provided and that questions were structured in such a way as to ensure an objective response.

The survey was carried out exclusively online, during September 2020, and was promoted through RLTC’s digital and social media channels as well as through a wide range of other local community groups and being supplemented by a letter drop of “immediate neighbours” in the vicinity of Overtoun Park. There were a total of 679 responses, which we would consider to be a very substantial level of response for an early-stage consultation project of this nature. 520 respondents provided postcode information, allowing for the following profile of responses to be identified:

 77% of respondents were from the G73 (Rutherglen) postcode areas  14% were from the G72 (Cambuslang and Blantyre) postcode areas  3% were from the G74/75 (East Kilbride) postcode areas  4% were from other G Postcodes (Greater Glasgow)  3% were from other postcode areas.

BACKGROUND, OBJECTIVES & METHODOLOGY (CONTINUED)

Where postcode information was provided, it has also been possible to identify responses from “immediate neighbours” both to the immediate north and south of Overtoun Park. Whilst these are relatively few in number we have, where appropriate identified their views separately.

POTENTIAL USAGE AND IMPACT OF THE FACILITY

The survey findings show a very high level of interest in usage of the covered tennis courts, with 48% of respondents overall indicating that they would be interested in using the tennis courts as a member of RLTC and 6% as a member of another tennis club. 51% indicated they would be interested in using the tennis courts on a pay-as-you-play basis (the survey questionnaire noted that there would also be limited free access to the courts to encourage participation). It is noted that 28% of those that were not members of RLTC indicated an interest in using the courts as a member of the club and 62% of people in this category in using the courts on a pay-as-you-play basis, suggesting substantial potential demand for both types of usage.

There is also a substantial level of interest apparent in the other sporting elements of the proposal, with 39% expressing interest in the “padel” tennis courts and 56% in a games facility offering free-to-use table tennis, table football and pool.

A similarly high proportion of respondents (58%) indicated an interest in using the flexible space available for community use at low cost (examples of such use were given as a prompt, including dance, arts, fitness / exercise classes, community cinema, screenings of big sporting events and community meeting rooms). Respondents from the G73 postcode (63%) and existing park users (68%) were particularly likely to express an interest in this.

The highest level of interest in any of the elements of the proposal was for the café, with 85% of survey respondents indicating an interest in this (the figure again being particularly high amongst existing park users at 87%. 66% indicated an interest in access to the toilets, which would be available for public use and 34% in use of the secure, covered bicycle storage facility.

Overall, these responses suggest widespread interest across the tennis, other sporting and wider community uses proposed for the facility.

POTENTIAL USAGE AND IMPACT OF THE FACILITY

Survey respondents were also asked about the extent to which they felt a proposal such as this would have an impact on certain individual and community issues, with the response options being “not at all”, “to some extent” and “to a significant extent”. In each case, a substantial majority of respondents felt that the proposal would impact on these things to a significant extent, these figures being:

 74% for increasing participation in sport  72% for improving people’s physical health  71% for improving people’s mental health  71% for helping to bring people in the community together.  70% for enhancing people’s pride in their community.

SPECIFIC LOCATION OF THE FACILITY

Survey respondents were provided with an overall illustration of where Overtoun Park is located and of the likely location and footprint of the facility. They were then asked whether they considered this to be a suitable location for the sort of facility proposed. A very substantial majority (90%) considered that this was a suitable location compared to 8% that indicated it was not and 2% of respondents who gave a “don’t know” response.

Agreement that the location was a suitable one was particularly high amongst existing RLTC members (95%) but was also very high amongst non-members (88%). Respondents from the G73 postcode were even more likely than others to consider the location to be suitable. A majority of respondents identified as “immediate neighbours” agreed that the location was appropriate, the level of agreement being 70% amongst immediate neighbours to the north and 80% amongst immediate neighbours to the south.

Respondents were given the opportunity to comment on the reasons for their answer and 270 individual respondents made comment. IBP have coded these responses to common categories to provide an overview of the key themes emerging form the comments. By some distance, the most common theme as to why the location was suitable was that the specific proposed space is currently in poor condition or not put to good use (this theme was referenced on 38% of these comments).

SPECIFIC LOCATION OF THE FACILITY (CONTINUED)

The most common other reasons within these comments for people being supportive included that the location was seen as central / easy to access (referenced in 15% of comments), that the space had previously been used for tennis courts (referenced in 10% of comments) and the potential for the facility to have a positive impact on other park users (referenced in 9% of comments).

The most common reasons as to why the location was not suitable were a preference to retain the area as green space (referenced in 9% of these comments), the impact on existing users of that specific part of the park (referenced in 7% of comments), the impact on immediate neighbours of the facility (also referenced in 7% of comments) and parking / transport issues (referenced in 6% of comments).

POSSIBLE CONCERNS

Respondents were provided with a range of possible issues relating to the proposal and were asked to categorise these as “not a concern”, “a slight concern” or “A big concern”. There were two issues which a majority of respondents categorised as either a “slight” or “big” concern. These were:

 Potential for vandalism (46% described this as a slight concern and a further 17% as a significant concern); immediate neighbours to the north (30%) and to the south (40%) were more likely to describe this as a “big” concern.  Parking (38% described this as a slight concern and a further 16% as a significant concern); this was a much more common concern amongst immediate neighbours to the north of the park, with 65% of these describing it as a “big” concern.

The next most common concern was around the potential for anti-social behaviour with 36% describing this as a slight concern and 12% as a big concern (the latter figure was higher amongst immediate neighbours to the north (25%) and amongst immediate neighbours to the south (40%). A significant minority of respondents also indicated that loss of green space was a concern, with this being a slight concern for 18% of respondents and a big concern for 10% (53% of immediate neighbours to the north described this as a “big” concern although none of the immediate neighbour respondents from the south of the park did so).

Should RLTC take the project forward, the above are the main concerns that it would need to overcome and it is noted that some such concerns (albeit these are often “slight” concerns) are held by people that are generally supportive of the proposal as well as those that may oppose it.

POSSIBLE CONCERNS (CONTINUED)

Only a relatively small proportion of respondents considered the other issues listed to be possible concerns. 19% overall considered that noise was a concern to some extent (12% slight concern, 7% big concern), 17% that light pollution was a concern (11% slight concern, 6% big concern) and 17% that loss of visual amenity was a concern (9% slight concern, 8% big concern).

OVERALL VIEWS ON THE PROPOSAL

When asked to indicate, based on what they know currently, to what extent they would support or oppose the proposal, a very substantial level of support was noted. 82% of respondents indicated that they supported the proposal fully and a further 9% that they tended to support it. 6% of respondents indicated that they opposed the proposal fully and a further 3% that they tended to oppose it.

Whilst support was highest amongst RLTC members (92% supported fully and 5% tended to support) it was also very high amongst others (78% supported fully and 10% tended to support). These figures were similar for existing park users (78% supported fully and 9% tended to support). Amongst immediate neighbours there was also majority support for the proposal. Amongst immediate neighbours to the north, 40% indicated that they supported the proposal fully and 15% tended to support it; 20% indicated that they opposed the proposal fully and 15% that they tended to oppose it, with 10% giving a “don’t know” response. Amongst immediate neighbours to the south, 60% indicated that they supported the proposal fully and 30% tended to support it, with the remaining 10% indicating that they tended to oppose the proposal.

Finally, respondents had the opportunity to make any further comments that they wished and 225 people did so. These comments have again been coded to common categories by IBP. Other than general positive supportive comments (42% of comments were classified as such) the most common theme to emerge from these final comments was the importance of inclusivity and wider community benefits (such issues were referenced in 34% of the comments). Other than this, the most common themes identified related to benefits associated with playing tennis (referenced in 9% of comments) and health / fitness / wellbeing benefits (referenced in 8% of comments).

1.0 BACKGROUND, OBJECTIVES & METHODOLOGY

BACKGROUND

1.1 Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Club (RLTC) is a local tennis club operating currently from two sites on Viewpark Drive and Burnside Road within Burnside, Rutherglen. The club has been developing a proposal for covered tennis courts and an associated community hub facility within Overtoun Park. Rutherglen.

1.2 As part of the development of the proposal, an online survey was developed and promoted during September 2020 with the overall aim of gathering feedback on the proposals as they stand currently. IBP Strategy & Research (IBP) has supported this process through questionnaire design, hosting and data analysis, resulting in the production of this report.

1.3 The intention has been that these findings shape a proposal from RLTC to South Lanarkshire Council to seek an outline “Heads of Terms” agreement to lease the land for 25 years, thus allowing it to source the required funding in order to build the facility. It should be noted that any such agreement reached would be subject to a full planning assessment, which would include comprehensive public consultation. The overall purpose of this survey has, therefore, been to determine at an early stage whether there was appetite for such a facility within the local community and to seek feedback to help shape the plans.

OBJECTIVES

1.4 The specific survey objectives were to:

 Gauge Interest in usage of the different elements of the proposed facility.  Identify the extent of potential benefits that the proposal could have for individuals and for the community as a whole.  Ascertain views on the suitability of the proposed location and reasons for this.  Identify the extent of any concerns that people had over the proposals.  Identify levels of overall support / opposition to the proposals.

1 Appendices are included under separate cover for reasons of space. 1

METHODOLOGY

1.3 The survey was carried out exclusively online2, during September 2020. It was promoted through RLTC’s digital and social media channels as well as through a wide range of other local community groups. This was supplemented by a letter drop of “immediate neighbours” in the vicinity of Overtoun Park who were encouraged to visit RLTC’s website in order to review background material on the proposal and to complete the survey.

1.4 There were a total of 679 responses, which we would consider to be a very substantial level of response for an early-stage consultation project of this nature.3

1.5 The largest single source of responses was RLTC’s social media (including facebook and twitter) with the survey post being “boosted” on facebook to individuals in the local community; 341 responses (50%) came from this source. The second highest source of respondents was RLTC’s email newsletter, which was issued to members and others who had provided their contact details to the club at some point in the past; 181 responses (27% came from this source). 96 responses (14%) came from people visiting the RLTC website. Other than this, the most significant number of responses came via the Burnside Community Council link (33 respondents, 5% of the total) with the balance coming from survey links issued through various other community groups.4

RESPONDENT PROFILE

1.6 62% of respondents identified as female and 35% as male, with one “Other” response and the remainder indicating that they preferred not to say.5

1.7 The age profile of respondents is shown in Figure 1.1 over the page:

2 The survey was configured to be limited to one respondent per device, in order to minimise the possibility of individuals submitting multiple responses. 3 The number of responses to each individual question varies and the base number of respondents to each question is noted in the body of the text. 4 The survey was configured to identify these sources of responses by having separate links (or “collectors”) for each channel through which the survey was distributed. 5 It should be noted that, throughout the report, responses may not sum to 100% due to rounding. 2

Figure 1.1: Respondent Profile - Age

35% 31% Base: 679 30% 26% 25% 17% 20%

15% 9% 9% 10% 3% 4% 5%

0% 16-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+ Prefer not to say A broad range of ages was apparent amongst respondents but with the 35-44 and 45-54 age groups being predominant.

1.8 Respondents were also asked to indicate if a number of characteristics pertained to them including: whether they were a member of RLTC; whether they were a member of another tennis club; whether they were not a member of a tennis club but played regularly; whether they were a “local resident”; and, whether they were a regular park user. The profile of respondents according to these characteristics is shown in Figure 1.2 below:

Figure 1.2: Respondent Characteristics

69% 70% Base: 679 55% 60% 50%

40% 27% 30% 20% 5% 7% 10%

0% Member of RLTC Member of another Not a member of Local resident Regular park user tennis club tennis club but play tennis regularly

Whilst a significant proportion of respondents were members of RLTC or had some other involvement in tennis, the majority of respondents were not. A substantial proportion of respondents (69%) defined themselves as a “local resident” and a majority as a “regular park user”.

1.9 Respondents were invited to provide a home postcode and 521 respondents did so. IBP has classified these into common categories, these being: G73 (Rutherglen) postcodes; G72 (Cambuslang & Blantyre) postcodes; G74 / G75 (East Kilbride postcodes); other G postcodes (Greater Glasgow); and, other postcodes from outside these areas. The profile of respondents by postcode is shown in Figure 1.3 below:

Figure 1.3: Respondent Profile - Postcode

77% 80% Base: 521 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 14% 20% 3% 3% 4% 10%

0% G73 (Rutherglen) G72 (Cambuslang & G74 / G75 (East Other G (Greater Other postcodes Blantyre) Kilbride) Glasgow) postcodes

Those respondents that provided postcode information were overwhelmingly from the Rutherglen postcode area but with significant numbers from the neighbouring postcode area that covers Cambuslang and a smattering of responses from further afield.

1.10 Where postcode information was provided, it has also been possible to identify responses from “immediate neighbours” both to the immediate north (20 respondents) and south (10 respondents) of Overtoun Park.6

6 “Immediate Neighbours North” were defined as those with postcodes corresponding to the streets of Johnstone Drive, Overtoun Drive and Park Drive. “Immediate Neighbours South” were defined as those with postcodes corresponding to the streets of Rodger Drive, Crosshill Drive, Mitchell Drive, Broomieknowe Gardens and part of Broomieknowe Road. It should be noted that there may have been other respondents from these areas but who were mot identifiable as they did not provide a postcode. 4

1.11 Detailed cross-tabulations of findings according to each of the above respondent descriptors have been produced and are set out in detail in Appendix 2. The key breakdowns are detailed and commented on within the main body of the report.7

1.12 The survey contained a number of open-ended questions, encouraging respondents to comment on aspects of the proposal. Where relevant, IBP have coded these responses to common categories of response and have detailed these findings in the main body of the report. A full listing of these comments is set out in Appendix 3.

7 It should be noted that the sample size for the “immediate neighbours” categories of respondent is relatively small (as would be expected given the tight definition of these areas) but results broken down at this level have been provided for completeness, recognising that the particular interest that these immediate neighbours may have in the proposal and its impacts. 5

2.0 POTENTIAL USAGE AND IMPACT OF THE FACILITY

2.1 The text that accompanied the survey questions set out the following proposition for the proposed facility.

“The vision for the facility is as a vibrant community hub with tennis at its heart but including other sports past-times and community facilities. The facility will include 4 covered tennis courts as well as “padel” tennis courts, games facility, flexible space for community use, café, changing and showering facilities, and toilets available for public use.

The building is expected to be approximately 80m long by 40m wide with a pitched roof 9m high at the centre and 4m at the sides. It will be a simple steel structure with a fabric (PVC) skin. This will provide a shell to keep the rain and snow off the courts and shelter players from the elements. The space will not be heated and so will not require insulation. This keeps costs down and also minimises the facility’s carbon footprint. The intention is to have a good quality but no-frills facility that can be used all year round by as many people as possible. The “indoor” elements of the facility will be “shipping container” style, an approach that has been applied previously at the club’s Burnside courts.”

2.2 The pictures below and over the page were included alongside the survey text to provide an illustration of the type of facility planned.

2.3 Respondents were asked which of a number of elements of the proposal they and / or another member of their household may be interested in. The results of this are shown in Table 2.1 over the page, ordered by overall level of interest.

Table 2.1: Interest in Proposal Elements

Which of the following elements of the proposal do you think you and / or another member of your household may be interested in?

Element of Proposal %

Using the café (which will be open to the public and offering free Wi-Fi) 85% Access to the toilets (which will be available for public use) 66% Using the flexible space available for community use at low cost (e.g. dance, arts. Fitness / exercise classes, community cinema, screenings of 58% big sporting events, community meetings etc.) Using the games facility offering free-to-use table tennis, table football 56% and pool Using the tennis courts on a pay-as-you-play basis (with limited free 51% access also available to encourage participation) Using the tennis courts as a member of Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Courts 48% Using the “padel” tennis courts (padel tennis is a rapidly growing sport with rules similar to tennis but played on an indoor court about one- 39% third the size of a tennis court) Using the secure, covered bicycle storage facility provided to encourage 34% users to access the facility by bike Using the tennis courts as a member of another tennis club 6% None of the above 6% Base 664

2.4 Amongst respondents that gave an answer to this question it is notable that only 6% gave a “none of the above” response suggesting that there is widespread potential interest in at least some elements of what may be offered.

The most substantial level of interest is actually in what might be considered the “Wider community” aspects of the proposal, with 85% of respondents expressing an interest in the café, 66% in access to the toilets, 58% in the flexible community space and 56% in the free-to-use games facility (a smaller, but still significant, proportion of 34% express an interest in the bicycle storage facility). These figures would seem to suggest considerable support therefore for the “community hub” concept being mooted for the potential facility.

There is also very substantial interest apparent in the “tennis-related” aspects of the proposal and it is notable that this applies to both “pay-as-you-play” tennis (51%) and as a member of RLTC (48%). It may be noted that 28% of those that were not members of RLTC indicated an interest in using the courts as a member of the club and 62% of people in this category in using the courts on a pay-as-you-play basis, suggesting substantial potential demand for both types of usage.

This suggests a need to offer an appropriate balance of both of these methods but does suggest strongly that the proposal has the potential to expand participation in the sport (noting, for example, that 27% of respondents were members of RLTC but a much higher proportion (48%) express an interest in using the courts as a member of the club. Interest in using the courts as a member of another tennis club is more limited (at 6%) but it should be borne in mind that this is the figure for respondents as a whole. In fact, amongst the 32 respondents that were actually members of another club, 66% expressed an interest in using the courts in this way.

Interest in using the “padel” tennis courts is slightly lower at 39% (reflecting lower knowledge and current participation in the sport) but this still suggests that a significant proportion of people may have an interest in this

2.5 Appendix 2 breaks down these results according to the various respondent criteria. Where there are particularly significant differences in interest according to different respondent criteria, we have noted these in Table 2.2 over the page.

Table 2.2: Interest in Proposal Elements – Significant Variations

Element of Proposal Variation by Respondent Criteria

Slightly higher than average amongst Using the café (which will be open to the women (89%), 35-44 year olds (91%), public and offering free Wi-Fi) RLTC members (89%) and G73 postcode (also 89%). Interest highest amongst 35-44 year olds, Access to the toilets (which will be available people aged 65+ and regular park users for public use) (73% in each case) Using the flexible space available for community use at low cost (e.g. dance, arts. Higher amongst women (64% compared Fitness / exercise classes, community to 49% of males) and in the G73 postcode cinema, screenings of big sporting events, (63%) community meetings etc.) Interest in this was highest in the Using the games facility offering free-to-use younger age groups (70% of 16-24 year table tennis, table football and pool olds, and 70% in each of the 25-34 and 35-44 age bands. Using the tennis courts on a pay-as-you-play Interest was highest amongst 25-34 year basis (with limited free access also available olds (61%) and 35-44 year olds (66%) and to encourage participation) in the G73 postcode (56%). As might be expected, interest in this is Using the tennis courts as a member of almost universal amongst RLTC members Rutherglen Lawn Tennis Courts (99%). It is also above average amongst 16-24 year olds (57%). Using the “padel” tennis courts (padel tennis is a rapidly growing sport with rules similar Interest in this is again higher amongst to tennis but played on an indoor court RLTC members (49%). about one-third the size of a tennis court) Again, interest is slightly higher amongst Using the secure, covered bicycle storage RLTC members (40%) and, in this case, facility provided to encourage users to amongst 35-44 year olds (43%) and in the access the facility by bike G72 postcode (45%). As noted previously, this figure is Using the tennis courts as a member of actually 66% amongst existing members another tennis club of other tennis clubs.

It is worth noting that these variations are actually relatively modest, with interest varying only slightly across most respondent criteria (and certainly those groups where the sample of respondents could be considered large enough to reasonably draw any inferences). It is, however, notable that interest in the different proposed elements varies by age, with each broad age group expressing higher than average levels of interest in different aspects, suggesting that the mix of activities may be well configured to engage a very wide age range of users.

2.6 Respondents were also given the opportunity to comment on any other facilities or activities that could be included in a project such as this and a full listing of the comments made in response to this is set out in Appendix 3.

In reality, the great majority of these comments repeated the examples provided in the prompted list and sometimes made observation as to how these might best be used (e.g. referring to tennis coaching, how meeting rooms might be made available, access for schools, hire for birthday parties and so on). It would be expected that these would be reviewed in detail by RLTC.

A number of specific suggestions were really for alternative facilities that would be outwith the scope of this specific proposal (e.g. 5-a-side football pitch, running track, indoor bowling lane, squash courts, upgrading of the park’s BMX track, a bar). Others related to uses to which the surface of the tennis courts might be put to use when not used for tennis (e.g. badminton courts, roller skating; basketball).

Suggestions that might reasonably be considered as part of the further development of the concept included: mini-soft play area; covered bowling lane; gym; viewing space.

It is beyond the scope of this study to determine the degree of interest in these elements but it is envisaged that RLTC would consider suggestions carefully as part of any future evolution of their proposals.

2.7 Respondents were then asked to indicate the extent to which a proposal such as this would have on a number of issues relating to individual and personal wellbeing. These results are set out in Table 2.3 over the page.

Table 2.3: Perceived Impact on Individual and Personal Wellbeing

To what extent do you think that a proposal such as this would have an impact on each of the following?

To a To some Impact Not at all significant Base extent extent Increasing participation in sport 4% 21% 74% 670 Improving people’s physical health 4% 24% 72% 667 Improving people’s mental health 5% 23% 71% 668 Helping to bring people in the 7% 23% 71% 663 community together Enhancing people’s pride in their 8% 22% 70% 667 community

There was clearly a widespread view amongst respondents that a proposal such as this could have a “significant impact” in relation to participation in sport and in aspects of individual wellbeing (both physical and mental health). This is also true with respect to wider aspects of community wellbeing, including bringing people together and enhancing people’s pride in their community. In none of these instances did the proportion of survey respondents considering these impacts to be “to a significant extent” fall below 70%.

2.8 Appendix 2 breaks down these results according to the various respondent criteria. The key variations are noted in Table 2.4 over the page.

Table 2.4: Impact on Wellbeing – Significant Variations

Variation by Respondent Criteria Element of Proposal (based on % of “to a significant extent” responses) Above average response amongst existing RLTC members (87%) and non-tennis club Increasing participation in sport members who play tennis regularly (83%) and also amongst people aged 65+ (80%). Above average response amongst existing RLTC members (84%) and non-tennis club Improving people’s physical health members who play tennis regularly (81%). Above average response amongst existing RLTC members (81%) and non-tennis club Improving people’s mental health members who play tennis regularly (84%). Helping to bring people in the community Above average response amongst existing together RLTC members (83%). Above average response amongst existing Enhancing people’s pride in their community RLTC members (79%).

RLTC members and others involved in tennis were particularly likely to perceive these benefits. However, the differences between different groups of respondents were again relatively modest with a significant majority within each major respondent group indicating that they believed the proposal would have an impact on these things “to a significant extent”.

Respondents from the smaller groups of immediate neighbours were less positive in so far as fewer of these considered the benefits would be achieved “to a significant extent” but, in relation to each issue, a significant majority of this group perceived that the impact would be achieved to at least some extent.

2.9 The final element of this part of the survey asked people how they would anticipate accessing the facility, were they to use it. The results are set out in Figure 2.1 below (it should be noted that respondents were able to give multiple responses to this question):

Figure 2.1: Anticipated Means of Accessing Facility

If you were to use the facility, how would you anticipate accessing it?

75%

60% Base: 663 47%

35% 40%

20%

0% Car (either as Public transport Bicycle On foot Other driver or passenger)

When asked how they would anticipate accessing the facility were they to use it, 75% of respondents said this would be on foot, 47% by car, 36% by bicycle and 5% by public transport. Multiple responses were allowed for this question and the responses suggest that, whilst some people would always use the same method of accessing the facility, some would use different methods in different circumstances. For example, amongst those that indicate they would sometimes use the car, 35% say they would sometimes access the facility by bike and 52% that they would sometimes do so on foot. Conversely, amongst those who say they would sometimes access the facility on foot, 32% said they would sometimes do so by car and 37% by bicycle.

2.10 Appendix 2 breaks down these results according to the various respondent criteria. Members of RLTC are more likely than average to say they would access the facility by car (62%) and on bicycle but less likely than average to access it on foot (albeit access by foot amongst RLTC members would still be substantial, at 62%). This is likely a reflection of the geographic spread of current members and the difference between people accessing the facility for specific sporting reasons or for more general purposes.

The figures show that people in the G73 postcode area would be less likely to use the car to access the facility (31%) and more likely to access it by foot (89%). 14

KEY POINTS

Overall, these responses suggest widespread interest across the tennis, other sporting and wider community uses proposed for the facility.

KEY POINTS (CONTINUED)

3.0 SPECIFIC LOCATION OF THE FACILITY

3.1 The following description of the location of the proposed facility was set out within the survey questionnaire:

“It is proposed to site the facility in Overtoun Park, Rutherglen, between the current BMX track and Overtoun Bowling Club. This was formerly the site of 8 blaes tennis courts, which were closed and grassed over during the 1990s. The facility would take up approximately one-third of this space.”

3.2 The illustrations below were provided to illustrate the proposed location of the facility:

3.3 Overall views on the suitability of this location are shown in Figure 3.1:

Figure 3.1: Suitability of Location

Do you consider this to be a suitable location for the sort of facility proposed?

90%

Base: 677 60%

40%

20% 8% 2%

0% Yes No Don't Know

Clearly, a very substantial proportion of survey respondents overall considered the facility to be a suitable one (90%) with 8% disagreeing that this was so and 2% giving a “don’t know” response.

3.4 A detailed profile of responses to this question by respondent criteria is detailed in Table 3.1 over the page:8

8 Responses for individual sub-groups are provided only when that information is available and excludes “prefer not to say responses”. The overall results are not necessarily the sum of categories within each individual sub-group, therefore. 18

Table 2.1: Suitability of Location - Breakdown

Do you consider this to be a suitable location for the sort of facility proposed? (% that consider location to be suitable)

% that consider Category of respondent Base location to be suitable Gender Female 91% 421 Male 91% 240 Age 16-24 91% 23 25-34 93% 61 35-44 92% 211 45-54 89% 179 55-64 93% 116 65+ 90% 63 Respondent Descriptor Member of RLTC 95% 186 Member of another tennis club 91% 32 Not a member of a tennis club but 94% 49 regularly play tennis Local resident 89% 468 Regular park user 87% 371 Postcode Location and Immediate Neighbours G73 (Rutherglen) 92% 397 G72(Blantyre & Cambuslang) 97% 71 G74 / G75 (East Kilbride) 93% 14 Other G (Greater Glasgow) postcodes 87% 23 Other postcodes 86% 14 Immediate neighbours North 70% 20 Immediate neighbours South 80% 10 All respondents 90% 677

Agreement that the location was suitable did not vary by gender9 or by age to any great extent. A very significant proportion of respondents across all categories indicated that they considered the location to be a suitable one including people that described themselves as “local residents” (89%) or “regular park users” (87%).

Agreement that the location was a suitable one was particularly high amongst existing RLTC members (95%) but it should be noted that agreement was also very high amongst non-members (88%).

Respondents from the G73 postcode itself were even more likely than others to consider the location to be suitable (92%) and this was also the case amongst respondents from the G72 postcode area (97%) potentially reflecting a high proportion of respondents from that area being RLTC members.

A majority of respondents that were identified as “immediate neighbours” as detailed in Section 1 agreed that the location was appropriate, the level of agreement being 70% amongst immediate neighbours to the north and 80% amongst immediate neighbours to the south.

3.5 Respondents were given the opportunity to give reasons for their answer and these comments are set out in full in Appendix 3. IBP have coded these comments to common categories and have detailed these results in Table 2.2 over the page:10

9 The figure for each gender is slightly higher in each case than the “all respondents” figure as there were a small number of people that did not answer the gender question, who gave more negative responses (this also applied to other respondent descriptors). 10 It should be noted that the figures quoted are % of comments allocated to each theme and not the % of total respondents. Individual comments may be allocated to multiple themes and so the totals sum to greater than 100%. 20

Table 2.2: Reasons for Response to Question on Location Suitability

Which of the following elements of the proposal do you think you and / or another member of your household may be interested in?

Theme from comments (coded) %

Reasons Suitable Proposed space currently in poor condition or not put to good use 38% Central location / easy to access 15% Space used previously for tennis courts 10% Potential for positive impact on other park facilities 9% General positive comments about suitability of location 6% Limited impact on neighbouring properties 4% Benefits of aspects of facility for other park users 3% General positive comments not specific to location issues 3% Other reason for suitability 3% Reasons not suitable Preference to retain as green space 9% Impact on immediate neighbours 7% Impact on existing users of that part of the park 7% Parking / transport issues 6% Visual impact / size of building 3% Impact on nature of wildlife 3% Other reasons for non-suitability 2% Other Themes Preference for alternative locations 5% Questions about specific aspects of possible developments 4% Comments that relate to other park facilities 2% Base 270

In terms of reasons for suitability, by far the most apparent theme was that the specific space within the park was either in poor condition or not put to good use (this was referenced in 38% of the 270 comments that were received in response to this question). Other common positive themes were that the location was central or easy to access (referenced in 15% of comments), that the space had previously been used for tennis (referenced in 10% of comments) and the potential for investment in this facility to have an impact on other facilities in the park (referenced in 9% of comments).

Reasons for the location not being considered suitable were less common, reflecting the general view amongst survey respondents as to the suitability of the location. The most common theme in terms of reasons for non-suitability were a preference to retain the area as green space (referenced in 9% of comments), impact on immediate neighbours (referenced in 7% of comments), impact on existing users of that part of the park (7%) and parking / transport issues (6%). Other comments made in response to this question did not relate specifically to the suitability of the location and referenced themes such as a preference for other locations, questions being posed about specific aspects of the proposed development and comments that actually related to other park facilities.

KEY POINTS

KEY POINTS (CONTINUED)

4.0 POSSIBLE CONCERNS

4.1 Respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which certain aspects of the proposals may be a concern for them. These results are set out in Figure 4.1 below, organised in order of the proportion of respondents that indicated the issue to be “a big concern”:

Table 4.1: Possible Concerns

To what extent are any of the following relating to the proposal of concern to you?

Not a A slight A big Area of potential concern Base concern concern concern Potential for vandalism 36% 46% 17% 659 Parking issues 47% 38% 16% 661 Potential for anti-social behaviour 52% 36% 12% 660 Loss of green space 72% 18% 10% 662 Loss of visual amenity 83% 9% 8% 649 Noise 81% 12% 7% 641 Light pollution 83% 11% 6% 649 Something else 91% 2% 7% 243

The most common concerns included potential for vandalism (46% a concern to some extent, 17% to a significant extent) and potential for anti-social behavior (36% a concern to some extent, 12% to a significant extent). It is worth noting that these factors are a concern to at least some degree for a significant minority of people, including many that support the proposal and the proposed location, and these are clearly issues that RLTC should seek to mitigate in the further development of its proposals.

The same is true to some extent of parking issues, where 38% say this is a concern to some extent and 16% a concern to a significant extent. Parking issues were a particular concern for immediate neighbours to the north of the park (with 65% of the 20 respondents in this category considering this to be a big concern).

Other concerns do exist, albeit amongst a minority of respondents (including loss of green space, loss of visual amenity, noise and light pollution) and these are significant enough that RLTC should also be looking at how it could mitigate these additional concerns.

4.2 A full listing of the “something else” comments is set out in Appendix 3.11 Many of the comments were actually a restatement of the issues in the initial prompted list (albeit worded somewhat differently) and others were comments of a more general nature, comments that posed questions as to what the facility may be like and how it would be managed, comments about the importance of community involvement, and comments where respondents weighed up their likes and dislikes relating to the proposal.

Specific additional concerns that did emerge from these “something else” comments included: impact on nature and wildlife; traffic congestion; financial sustainability of the venture: loss of other park facilities, litter, and the balance between different types of tennis paying opportunities (e.g. social, elite, coaching and do on).

These additional concerns were mentioned only by a very small number of respondents but are noted here for completeness.

KEY POINTS

11 It should be noted that only some of those that responded “something else” provided further comment on this. 25

KEY POINTS (CONTINUED)

5.0 OVERALL VIEWS ON PROPOSAL

5.1 Respondents were asked to comment, based on what they knew currently, to what extent they would support or oppose the proposal. The results are set out in Figure 5.1:

Figure 5.1: Degree of Support for Proposal

Overall, based on what you know currently, to what extent would you support or oppose the proposal?

82%

60% Base: 678

40%

20% 9% 6% 3% 1%

0% Support fully Tend to support Tend to oppose Oppose fully Don't know

The overall figures show a very high level of support for the proposal amongst survey respondents, with 82% indicating that, based on what they know currently, they fully support the proposal and a further 9% indicating that they tend to support the proposal. A total of 9% of respondents indicated opposition to the proposal (3% tend to oppose, 6% oppose fully) with 1% of respondents giving a “don’t know” response.

5.2 A detailed profile of responses to this question by respondent criteria is detailed in Table 5.1 over the page: 12

12 Responses for individual sub-groups are provided only when that information is available and excludes “prefer not to say responses”. The overall results are not necessarily the sum of categories within each individual sub-group, therefore. 27

Table 5.1: Degree of Support for the Proposal - Breakdown

Do you consider this to be a suitable location for the sort of facility proposed? (% that support fully or tend to support)

% that support fully or Category of respondent Base tend to support Gender Female 92% 421 Male 94% 240 Age 16-24 96% 23 25-34 97% 61 35-44 92% 210 45-54 89% 179 55-64 97% 116 65+ 92% 64 Respondent Descriptor Member of RLTC 97% 186 Member of another tennis club 97% 32 Not a member of a tennis club but 49 96% regularly play tennis Local resident 90% 468 Regular park user 87% 373 Postcode Location and Immediate Neighbours G73 (Rutherglen) 92% 398 G72(Blantyre & Cambuslang) 96% 71 G74 / G75 (East Kilbride) 100% 14 Other G (Greater Glasgow) postcodes 96% 23 Other postcodes 100% 14 Immediate neighbours North 55% 20 Immediate neighbours South 90% 10 All respondents 91% 678

Support does not vary significantly by gender or age.13 Support is marginally lower than average amongst regular park users but, even here, an overwhelming majority of 87% indicate at least some measure of support for the proposal (78% support fully, 9% tend to support).

The only identified segment where support is notably lower is amongst the small number of immediate neighbours to the north of the park. Amongst the 20 respondents in this category, support overall was lower but still the majority position with 55% expressing support (40% support fully, 15% end to support). 15% of these respondents indicated that they tended to oppose the project and 20% that they opposed it fully, with 10% giving a “don’t know” response.

5.3 Respondents were given the opportunity to make any comments that they wished and these comments are set out in full in Appendix 3. IBP have coded these comments to common categories and have detailed these results in Table 2.2 over the page:14

13 Again, the apparent anomaly of responses being more positive amongst both females and males arises from there being a small number of people who did not provide gender information, who expressed more negative views than others; a similar phenomenon applies to the breakdown of results by age. 14 It should be noted that the figures quoted are % of comments allocated to each theme and not the % of total respondents. Individual comments may be allocated to multiple themes and so the totals sum to greater than 100%. 29

Table 2.2: Final Comments

Please use the space below to make any final comments that you would like

Theme from comments (coded) %

General positive / supportive comments 42% Importance of inclusivity / wider community benefits 34% Benefits relating to tennis play 9% Health / fitness / wellbeing benefits 8% General negative /opposed comments 5% Facility not needed 4% Negative views on impact on neighbours 4% Desire for more detail on aspects of project 4% Positive comments about RLTC as project sponsor 4% Comments about nature of facility and mix of elements within it 2% Negative comments related to specific location 2% Suggestions for specific other facilities as part of proposal 2% Suggestions for alternative locations 2% Comments related to other parts of park and park facilities (not directly 2% related to proposal) Benefits to wider park users 1% Negative comments indicating facility would be exclusive 1% Concern over contaminated land <1% Other comments (not classified to any of the above) <1% Base 225

Other than comments of a generally supportive nature, the most apparent theme related to the importance of inclusivity and wider community benefits from the proposal (this was referenced in 34% of these comments). Other common themes included benefits relating to tennis play such as: greater opportunity for year round play (referenced in 9% of comments) and health / fitness / wellbeing benefits (referenced in 8% of comments).

As shown in Table 2.2, there was a very diverse set of additional comments both of a general and a specific nature, with specific comments relating to issues such as: the need or otherwise for the facility; impact on neighbours; the nature of the facility and specific elements within it; suggestions for facilities; suggestions as to alternative locations; comments that relate to other parts of the park and its facilities; concerns over exclusivity; and concern over contamination of the land within the park.

KEY POINTS