Rutherglen Tennis Club hope proposals that will make them ‘one of the biggest clubs in Scotland’ will be approved by South Lanarkshire Council.
A 204-page document was submitted to the local authority in order to go ahead with their ambitious centenary plans to refurbish their facilities, which would also see them become a community hub.
Proposals for ‘Project 100’ were announced back in August with the backing of Judy Murray and include a new two-storey Viewpark clubhouse and covered courts at Overtoun Park, enabling them to provide year-round coaching.
For any of it to happen, they need SLC to grant them Head of Terms on the land, but club president Gareth Ellor hopes they’ve covered all their bases.
He said: “We just submitted our proposal to South Lanarkshire Council for Head of Terms agreement for a plot of land at Overtoun Park to build the covered courts we want to create.
“That’s now out on social media, proposals are submitted to the council and that pulls together about a year of hard work to get that off the ground, and the ball’s now in their court, as to whether they’ll let us progress onto the next stage.
“We need Head of Terms agreement because we can’t start to engage with funders to secure money for the project if we don’t have security on the land.
“That’s our first step, and we need SLC to agree to that position, but it’s a 204-page report, it’s very detailed and comprehensive.
“We undertook a month-long community survey with almost 700 responses, which showed there was overwhelming support in the community – we’ve looked at all aspects of it.”
Gareth added: “A key part of it will be this thriving community hub concept that we’re looking to.
“We have Glasgow South Tennis Club looking to use some space, we’ve got Cambuslang Harriers running club looking to get involved, we have Healthy and Happy, and Enable – community organisations that are keen to use the space.
“It really is an exciting community hub vision, which we’re quite passionate about, it will benefit the community in a whole host of ways.”
Ellor says getting the green light for the project will also make a massive difference to the club.
He said: “We don’t have covered courts, so this would allow us to deliver our community programme year-round and as a club we can double in size.”
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