Cowan Park tennis courts set for renovation
East Renfrewshire Council and the LTA have today announced a partnership to invest in and refurbish public park tennis courts in Cowan Park.
Published 20 July 2023
The park's six courts will be renovated as part of a £134,473 investment to ensure that quality tennis facilities are available for the local community.
The project is part of a nationwide investment by the UK Government and LTA Tennis Foundation, delivered by the LTA, to refurbish 3,000 existing public tennis courts across Great Britain, and open up the sport to many more people.
This investment will be used to bring courts in poor or unplayable condition back to life for the benefit of communities across the country through renovation works, and improved court accessibility with new gate-access technology and booking systems.
Park tennis courts are vital in providing opportunities for children and adults to get active, delivering significant physical and mental health and wellbeing benefits to participants. Accessible facilities in parks are particularly critical to opening up the sport to those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and women and girls.
In addition to investment of £129,473 from the UK Government and LTA Tennis Foundation, £5,000 will also be invested by East Renfrewshire Council.
Alongside the investment, East Renfrewshire Council and East Renfrewshire Culture & Leisure Trust will also work with the LTA to deliver a range of activity across the park sites. This will include weekly organised free park tennis sessions for all ages, playing levels and experience where equipment is provided, meaning that people will not need someone to play with or their own racket. Local Tennis Leagues will also provide friendly, sociable, opportunities to get active through local competition.
The park venues being renovated is Cowan Park in Barrhead. The courts in Rouken Glen Park will also trial online booking in the future, making it far easier to find and book a court or activity. All courts and sessions at all sites will be available to book online via the LTA website: www.lta.org.uk/play/book-a-tennis-court/
Work on site got underway on 17 July and is due to complete by the end of August. The three all-weather courts are open for public use. Towards the end of August, weather-dependent, those courts will close for a short period to allow for line painting.
Investment into parks is one way in which the LTA is working to open tennis up across Scotland, in partnership with Tennis Scotland. The LTA, Tennis Scotland and Sportscotland are also delivering the £15million Transforming Scottish Indoor Tennis fund to provide more year-round community accessible tennis provision, including the development of new indoor facilities in Oriam and Moray which are currently underway.
Following the hosting of the Billie Jean King Cup Finals and Davis Cup Regional Finals in Glasgow last year, which were both attended by hundreds of school children, work is ongoing to significantly increase the number of young people who have the opportunity to pick up a racket at school, through the LTA Youth programme.
East Renfrewshire Council Environment Convener, Councillor Danny Devlin, said: 'This investment is fantastic news for Barrhead and the wider East Renfrewshire community. We're committed to maintaining and upgrading our public facilities and these improvements in Cowan Park will provide local residents and visitors with six top quality tennis courts. Playing sport and keeping active has a real positive impact on physical and mental health, so I look forward to seeing the newly improved courts, which everyone can enjoy.'
Julie Porter, Chief Operating Officer at the LTA, said: 'We are delighted to be working with East Renfrewshire Council to improve their park tennis facilities and provide more opportunities for anyone to pick up a racket and get active. This investment is part of the UK Government and LTA's Parks Tennis Project, and will mean that courts will be available for people to use for years to come. We will also be working closely with East Renfrewshire Council ensure that the local community have a range of accessible opportunities to get on court, and open up our sport to many more people.'
