Brunswick Tennis Club upgrades unlikely to be finished before Christmas with courts left as crumbled concrete

When the courts were ripped up at the Brunswick Tennis Club in November, it was hoped members would be back playing on a new surface no later than February.

But as its rolls into July, the crumbled piles of concrete at the site seem unlikely to budge anytime soon.

The court upgrades were first announced in August last year, with the Shire of Harvey pledging $70,000 towards the project. Another $53,000 was received from the State Government’s Community Sporting and Recreation Facilities Fund.

Construction started soon after, but works came to a standstill after the courts were ripped up and little has changed in the past seven months.

In January, club president Julianne Hill said the old courts were brittle, dangerous and needed to be upgraded.

Though the project was already behind schedule, she was hopeful the courts would be open again to the public before the start of the upcoming tennis season.

Now it has been revealed the deadline is set to be missed, with the new courts unlikely to be completed before Christmas.

Club life member Mark Talbot said he feels extremely disappointed for the group of volunteers who have worked for the past seven months to make the upgrades a reality, blaming the council for the delays.

“They have tried their best to make this project happen with limited resources, and I feel the shire has really let them down by stopping the project,” he said.

“It’s an absolute tragedy the pressure the volunteers have been put under to try and finalise this project and get it back up and running.

“None of the volunteers even have any kids playing tennis in town, they just do it because they are passionate about keeping kids playing tennis, or any sport, in the Brunswick community.”

Mr Talbot said it is a “real disappointment” to see how have watched the endless delays put onto the tennis club.

“Why is this so hard?”, Mr Talbot said.

“It’s a bit of bitumen, they’re not asking for anything flashy.

“All they want is courts that the kids can go and play tennis on.”

Mr Talbot said one of the biggest tragedies of these delays is the impact it is having on Brunswick’s youth.

“There was somewhere between 60 and 70 kids playing tennis there every Tuesday afternoon, as they have done now for the best part of 20 years,” he said.

“Those kids now have nowhere to play sport in Brunswick.”

Mr Talbot said he hopes the community of Brunswick will be coming together in the next few months to try and get this project completed and tidy up the “eyesore” of rubble the tennis courts currently are.

Brunswick Tennis Club President Julianne Hill said she is hopeful to see some progress soon and looks forward to working with the shire to deliver the new courts.

The Shire of Harvey was contacted for comment.