Test Valley Borough Council and the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) have joined forces in a groundbreaking partnership to breathe new life into public tennis courts across the Test Valley.

The public tennis court at Vigo Road in Andover and at War Memorial Park in Romsey will be upgraded with gate access and booking systems installed. 

The courts will still be free to use and the booking system will enable users to plan when they would like to play and book a timed slot for their free use of the courts.

The council said the investment of £37,000 will help ensure that quality facilities are available for the local community as well as introducing an easy-to-use online process to book a court to play.

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Picket Piece and Picket Twenty will also have booking systems set up as part of this project.

In addition to the financial investment, Test Valley Borough Council staff will collaborate with the LTA to organise various tennis activities.

These will include weekly organised free park tennis sessions suitable for all ages and skill levels, with equipment provided to eliminate barriers to entry.

Local tennis leagues will also create friendly and sociable opportunities for competition, further fostering community engagement.

The online booking system for the courts will be accessible to players aged 13 and above through the LTA website at lta.org.uk/play.

The user-friendly tool will make it significantly easier for individuals to find and reserve tennis courts or activities across Test Valley.

Anticipated to commence in the upcoming autumn season, the renovation work is expected to conclude, with courts ready for play in 2024.

This forms part of a nationwide initiative spearheaded by the UK government and the LTA Tennis Foundation.

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The objective is to refurbish public tennis courts throughout Great Britain, making the sport more accessible to a wider demographic.

The project is expected to resurrect thousands of existing park tennis courts that were previously in poor or unplayable condition, improving court accessibility with innovative gate-access technology and booking systems.

TVBC's leisure portfolio holder, Cllr Terese Swain, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to encourage more people to get active and play tennis with newly renovated tennis courts in both the north and south of the borough that will be free to book online. It is great to work in partnership with the Lawn Tennis Association to help make this happen and it will give such a boost to the quality of our public tennis court facilities to be enjoyed by the local community.”

Julie Porter, chief operating officer at the LTA, said: “We are delighted to be working with Test Valley Borough 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 Test Valley Borough Council to ensure that the local community have a range of accessible opportunities to get on court and open up our sport to many more people.”