Disappointment over parking spaces being served up on tennis courts
A decision to allow cars to park on a tennis court has been met with a volley of objection by a sporting association.
Shropshire Playing Fields Association say it's "disappointing" that council workers are parking on courts at the Unison Sports Club at Shrewsbury's Shirehall, and it's depriving people who want to play.
Dave Kilby, from the association, said: "Shropshire Playing Fields Association were disappointed at the planning application outcome, that resolved to give permission for Shropshire Council to continue parking cars until May 27, 2021, on two tennis courts at the Unison Sports Club, despite SPFAs objection to the application.
"Since the decision Shropshire Playing Fields Association have monitored the usage of the car-park (over the last 5 months since May 2020) and can conclude that the car-park is not used at weekends or evenings and only rarely used by one or two cars during weekday worktime, with plenty of surplus spaces available elsewhere for staff and visitors to the Shirehall to use, should they want to."
In a lengthy objection letter, the association pointed out that if the two courts at Unison can't be used, it makes it 23 courts in the town that have been lost or under threat of being lost.
He added: "The Lawn Tennis Association says the number of people playing tennis rose sharply when lockdown restrictions were eased. Court bookings in parks and public spaces bounced up 372 percent in the UK this summer. The highest demand came on 14 June, when there were more than 26,000 bookings.
"SPFA hope that the tennis courts will be re-instated for community use before the temporary permission expires in May 2021 and that Shropshire Council will remove existing car park markings and upgrade the surface and tennis courts to benefit generations in the future.
Shropshire Council has been asked to comment on the situation.
