Tennis in Barnet consultation

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Consultation has concluded

Overview

We are seeking your views on a set of proposals on the way tennis is accessed across the borough and how they can be run in the future. Our proposals aim to ensure that we prioritise fairness and support the long-term investment and development of our tennis courts.

Background

Barnet has over 200 parks and open spaces, part of what makes Barnet such a great borough to live and visit. There are currently 58 tennis courts located across 28 parks within the London Borough of Barnet that vary in quality and condition. The courts currently operate on a bookable

Overview

We are seeking your views on a set of proposals on the way tennis is accessed across the borough and how they can be run in the future. Our proposals aim to ensure that we prioritise fairness and support the long-term investment and development of our tennis courts.

Background

Barnet has over 200 parks and open spaces, part of what makes Barnet such a great borough to live and visit. There are currently 58 tennis courts located across 28 parks within the London Borough of Barnet that vary in quality and condition. The courts currently operate on a bookable, free to use basis with two parks operating on and pay and play basis.

As part of understanding more about current access and provision, the council ran a pilot between September 2020 and September 2021, in four parks (Edgwarebury Park, Hendon Park, Montrose Playing Fields and Victoria Park).

The park locations were identified based on a range of factors such as (but not limited to) demand for tennis, recent investment, an existing charging model in place, free-to-use courts and a range in the quality and condition of tennis courts.

The focus of the pilot was to:

  • better understand public participation, usage, and access,
  • management arrangements and opportunities to improve park-based facilities
  • explore opportunities in which tennis across the borough could be enhanced, protected and developed.

The pilot included the following:

  • installation of gated technology to support the introduction of an online booking system and a pay to play offer that was trialed in Victoria Park and Hendon Park
  • there was a free to play offer in Edgwarebury Park and Montrose Playing Fields.

    all applicable fees were in line with the council’s approved fees and charges.


What are we seeking your views on?

We want to ensure that tennis facilities are sustainable in years to come and to consider ways to encourage more people to play tennis more often.

Specifically, this consultation aims to:

  • understand the local demand and interest in playing tennis
  • explore the options with the tennis community for parks tennis management that could apply, based on ideas and good practice elsewhere
  • explore the expansion of the pay and play model applied for tennis court hire
  • explore the potential for the future operation and/or management of parks tennis


How to have your say

Please give your views by completing our online questionnaire.

If you would like to request a paper questionnaire or another format please:

  • email parks@barnet.gov.uk or telephone 020 8359 7820
  • alternatively you can write to us at: Barnet Greenspaces and Leisure, London Borough of Barnet, 2 Bristol Avenue, Colindale, London, NW9 4EW.

If you would like someone to help you complete the questionnaire or need more information, please contact us using one of the above methods.


What happens after the consultation closes?

The council will use the consultation findings to inform our final decision. We will publish the results of the consultation, our decision and how we are acting on the results of the consultation on this web page in January 2023.

Consultation has concluded
  • We asked, you said, we did

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    We asked

    We asked for your views on a set of proposals on the way tennis is accessed across the borough and how they can be run in the future.

    You said

    We received 486 responses to the online questionnaire, and we received three direct emails.

    The summary of the responses is:

    • the majority of users played tennis once a week in parks
    • suitable playable surface, court availability and advance bookings were the most popular answers given to what would make users play more tennis in parks
    • the majority of respondents were happy with the online bookings platform
    • most of the respondents were in favour of some form of charging structure, though a large number of respondents were against any charging structure at all.

    We did

    The results of the consultation were used to form a report that was presented to and approved at the Environment and Climate Change Committee in November 2022 (Agenda Item 10). The committee approved to introduce a sustainable operating model which also seeks to grow tennis participation in Barnet by:

    • introducing an annual season ticket membership which allows the holder to book two 1-hour bookings per week
    • providing three hours free to play on weekdays for all courts (10:00-11:00 and 16:00-18:00)
    • bringing all bookings made by non-season ticket holders and outside of the free to play sessions in line with the existing pay and play model currently in place in Victoria Park and Hendon Park