By Don Mort, local democracy reporter
More than £650,000 could be spent on an upgrade of tennis courts around the city – including Burley Park.
Leeds City Council is planning to sign a grant agreement with the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) to carry out the project on a total of 42 courts in eight parks.
A council report said the LTA judged the Leeds courts to be in need of improvements as part of a UK-wide project.
If it goes ahead, the biggest share of the cash would go to Roundhay Park, where £140,000 would be spent refurbishing 16 courts this summer.
Elsewhere, courts at Beckett, Chapel Allerton, Harehills and Rothwell Springhead Park would be improved, along with Grove Road Recreation Ground in Temple Newsam and The Hollies in Weetwood.
Plans include resurfacing and re-colouring of courts, new fencing and new nets.
The report said: “It will improve park tennis courts which are available for people of all ages and abilities to use for free throughout the year.
“Evidence shows that better quality facilities are more popular and so more people will benefit from them in future as a result of the investment.”
A council decision notice said the grant agreement with the LTA Tennis Foundation would be worth £513,000.
A further £140,000 would come from funds available for community projects, to be agreed separately.
WLD reported in March how councillors on the inner west community committee had pledged £10,000 towards the Burley Park project. The grant will help resurface and repaint the three courts and replace all net posts and nets, which will bring the courts up to a ‘very good’ standard. Fencing around the courts will also be replaced.
The total investment of £654,000 would see contracts awarded to two companies, to run from June-September.
The report said: “The tennis courts identified for investment through the scheme are based right across the city which means they can be easily accessed by a large number of residents.
“Two of the parks, Burley and Harehills, are in wards that are among the ten per cent most deprived in the UK.”
The project also includes an online booking system with gated access, designed to reduce vandalism of courts.
Research by the LTA found just 16 per cent of UK players were satisfied with court booking systems.
The report said: “Gated access, therefore, was identified as a key technological intervention that would address these barriers to play.”
Leeds City Council said a decision would be made on the funding on June 4.