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 1 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. 3 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.