Purpose

The Council holds S106 funding for the area
for the purposes proposed .

The four tennis courts were built in 2015 after a fundraising
campaign. By 2016 a small new tennis club for Uppingham was formed
to enable people of the town and nearby villages to play tennis and
enjoy coaching. Every year since the club has increased its
membership numbers and the club is now a thriving resource open to
everyone. Member fees are very low (£65 for an adult) which
means it is widely accessible.

RTA play and train all year round and competes in the
Leicestershire LTA leagues which run throughout the year. Its
members’ ages run from teenagers to people in their 80s, many
of whom have returned to or taken up tennis in order to improve
their fitness and enjoy the social side of being members of a
club.

The courts are now nine years old and the surface paint has lost
much of its non-slip protection. When there has been rain,
especially during the autumn and winter, the ageing surface is far
from ideal and teams visiting from other clubs resent playing on
it. Unless it is professionally cleaned and repainted with
LTA-standard paint the club will have to withdraw from playing in
leagues and may well have to cease using UCC’s courts
completely. The publicly accessible courts at Uppingham School do
not have floodlights, so the club cannot relocate there. If the
club had to leave UCC it would have to disband as there is no
suitable alternative venue.

Both UCC and RTA value very highly the partnership that has built
up and how their arrangement enables substantial and frequent
community use of the school’s sports facilities. RTA uses the
courts more than the school’s PE department do.

To reflect that, both the school and the club are putting
£3,000 each towards this project. If Rutland County Council
were to approve our application for £2,000, we would be able
to proceed with the work this summer and guarantee the future of
the club for years to come.

Decision

To support the project with the sum of
£2000 from S106 contributions. Following the decision
£2000 will remain allocated to this project for an 18 month
period. The transfer of funds will be subject to the receipt of a
project plan and confirmed start date for the works.