Tennis court renovation and future charging models

Walsall Arboretum Tennis Court

For further information on the works to be completed please follow the link Planned Walsall court works

As a condition of the grant, we need to continue to fund maintenance of the gate access system and future court maintenance. 

The LTA funding is one off and is unlikely to be repeated, so it is essential for the future of our tennis facilities that the council identifies a way of generating income to invest back into court maintenance and improvements.  

This consultation is designed to understand your views on the different approaches to charging the council could take, as well as level of the fees. 

Approaches being considered:

1.    Tennis in Walsall membership

"Members” of the Tennis in Walsall programme and will be able to book courts 2 weeks in advance compared to non-members who would only have a week. 

Proposed charges are 

• Individual £30 per year
• Junior £10 per year
• Family membership £60 per year.

2.    Pay and play only 

All Walsall courts would be pay and play, although some sites and some key times would still be free to support those who may not want to pay or cannot afford it. 

3.    Tennis Pass plus pay and play options

An annual tennis pass will entitles you to play tennis at any Walsall Court for up to 3 hours a day, every day, all year round. Other courts would be charged at a pay and play rate, although some sites and some key times would still be left as free to support those who may not want to pay or cannot afford it. An example from Bury is Bury tennis pass model 

Proposed charges are

• Individual £30 per year
• Junior £10 per year
• Family Membership £60 per year
• Pay and Play courts £3 per court

4.    Pay and play with no free access times. 

Principle of free to use courts

There are two possible approaches for providing free to access courts:

• Charge at some key sites but leave other sites as free to access all of the time
• Charge at all sites for some peak time courts, but leave a number of courts free each day.

Please tell us your views by completing the following questions.

Next are more detailed questions about each charging model.

A Member would get up to 2 weeks advanced court booking, compared to non-members who would only be able to book 1 week in advance.

Proposed membership fees:

• Individual £30 per year
• Junior £10 per year
• Family £60 per year.

Courts across Walsall would be charged at a pay and play rate.

Some sites and some key times would still be left as free to support those who may not want to pay or cannot afford it.

• Proposed charges would be £3 per court per hour.

An annual tennis pass will entitle you to play tennis at any Walsall Court for up to 3 hours a day, every day, all year. Other courts at key times on key sites would be charged at a pay and play rate, although some sites and some key times would still be left as free to support those who may not want to pay or cannot afford it. 

Proposed charges are

• Individual £30 per year
• Junior £10 per year
• Family £60 per year
• Pay and Play £3 per hour per court