Tennis Club hopeful council will backpedal on three-court decision as club looks set to miss another season

The Brunswick Tennis Club is hopeful Shire of Harvey councillors will backpedal its three-court decision as the club is stuck in limbo, set to miss another tennis season. In November last year, the courts of the Brunswick tennis club were ripped up to make way for new grounds set to make their debut no later than February. Now in September, the courts remain a crumbled ruin in the centre of town, nine months after the Shire of Harvey stopped construction in December. Councillors voted in July to get the ball rolling for the club, backing plans which would see the club’s playing ground shrink from four courts to three. Following the vote, the Brunswick Tennis Club took to social media labelling the council’s decision a “backwards step”. The fate of the club is set to return to the council again later this month, with Cr Craig Carbone putting forth a motion for September’s meeting to revoke the previous decision. Club president Julianne Hill said she was hopeful the council would follow through with the original plans and see the club restored to its former capacity. “We’re on the edge of the woods at the moment, and looking positive,” she said. “We really don’t want this to feel like a them and us thing. We really hope that this is a partnership and we can keep working with the shire to get this to happen. “It’s a shire asset and we want it to be the best asset there is.” The decision to scale back the number of courts would hit the club hard, Ms Hill said, and potentially force the club to restrict the number of players. The club also planned to have a court open to the public and introduce the town to pickleball — which would be unlikely to come to fruition without four courts. With the cost of the project more than doubling since plans were first laid — ballooning from $221,000 to $460,000 — the shire’s vote to reduce the club to three courts would see about $100,000 saved, according to shire estimates. However, Ms Hill said the club’s supporters would also help reduce the costs about a further $150,000. She made a deputation before the council during August’s meeting saying it was unfortunate the vote did not go the way she had hoped in July especially with the shire approving four courts well before construction stated last year. During Ms Hill’s deputation, Cr Carbone asked why the club would need four courts with other courts in Roelands and Burekup. Cr John Bromham also asked Ms Hill how often the courts were previously utilised. Ms Hill said neither Roelands or Burekup had formal tennis and the club was only able to host coaches from Busselton Tennis Club one day a week on Tuesday afternoon, regularly hosting more than 70 students. She said the courts would be used daily besides Tuesday’s training days, with members welcome to use the courts and social tennis running every Sunday. Cr Joe Capogreco asked Ms Hill why the club was prioritising a fourth court over improving lighting. “I’m not a tennis player, but I can remember tennis being played in Harvey well into the evening,” he said. Ms Hill said the club needed the courts over the lights as the focus of the club was towards their junior players who play in the afternoons. She said the infrastructure would be in place for the lights to be done once the courts were complete. “When I was last here, I was given the question ‘convince me why you need four courts,’ that should not be a question,” Ms Hill said. “We need to fill those courts and we need to have more junior activity within our town. “It shouldn’t be us convincing you (councillors) that we need more courts, you should be wanting to help us.”