Tennis players in Brighton and Hove are being asked for their views on the future of the courts in four Brighton parks.
Brighton and Hove City Council said: “The council has received proposals from tennis clubs or groups of users to manage and operate the public tennis courts and any associated tennis club facilities at Dyke Park, Hollingbury Park, Preston Park and Saltdean.
“We’d like to know how residents feel about the individual proposals for each facility.
“The proposals follow the successful transfer of the facilities at Hove Park to the Hove Park Tennis Alliance in 2018.”
The process is known as a community asset transfer and is becoming more common across the country as councils give sports clubs and communities the opportunity to “manage facilities and generate investment for upgrading and maintenance”.
Locally, starting in 2016 the council and its parks and gardens department, Cityparks, started “transferring sports facilities in parks to sports clubs and user groups in order to ensure the future viability of these facilities”.
The process was part of a four-year programme expected to generate savings worth more than £360,000.
The council said: “Self-management of sports facilities has proved to be very successful, with clubs and other organisations generally able to offer better facilities at little or no cost to the council.
“Community Asset Transfer … is being used nationally by many local authorities and is supported by most sports’ national governing bodies.
“(It) enables sports clubs and communities to generate investment to upgrade and maintain facilities and allows those clubs and communities to determine how these facilities are accessed and managed.
“Tennis facilities would continue to be available for the public to use under a formal leasehold arrangement setting out expected principles, including for their safe and equitable operation, in line with national and individual sports’ national governing bodies’ best practice guidelines.”
The consultation closes on Sunday 29 August.
