The club is planning its next project, and the committee would like to canvas the opinions of the members before it makes its final decision.
The proposal is to cover the three existing Tarmac courts with Astro Turf, and to build two new Tarmac courts where the three grass courts are located.
The project will cost in the region of £90,000 and funding will be sought from the LTA and other associations to help meet the costs.
The committee feel that if the correct amount of funding is secured then the project is feasible.
We therefore seek approval from the members to proceed subject to funding being guaranteed. To reduce the amount of work required to collate all the responses, we would appreciate it if you could email the club at
hartfordtennisclub@googlemail.com only if you are against the proposed forward move.
The committee feel that the proposed resurfacing will only further enhance the clubs reputation as the leading club in the area, we hope you agree.
Questions and Answers to issues members have already raised
Q· Is astroturf a better surface than hard court? Why?
A. Yes, it is easier on the knees back etc it is a better surface to play on when wet and as it rains for a third of the year the courts are pretty damp most of the time.
Q.Are the ongoing maintenance costs for astro and hardcourt similar?
A.Maintenance costs are higher for astro turf, however we have purchased the equipment required already for the existing courts, so it should just be mainly a matter of man hours, and as it is John Walsh that does it, it should not cost the club too much more.
Q Why not build 2 new astro courts on the grass and reduce the project costs?
A. There are a number of reasons for the last question. Floodlights on the grass courts is out. So keeping three floodlit tarmac and having two un floodlit astro would be foolish. The surrounding trees means that if astro turf was laid on the grass court area, they would need a substantially larger amount of maintenance, and even with all the maintenance in the world the would become unplayable in time due to the lack of light and amount of debris deposited by the trees.The moss and algae love to live in astro as it is damp most of the year, the lack of light would mean that it would thrive. This should be manageable on tarmac as it dries out much quicker and can be more readily treated.
Q. In winter months the Astro Turf can be frozen/unplayable, whereas tarmac seems to drain more quickly and can be playable. Will the new tarmac courts have flood lighting, and hence be playable on winter evenings?
A.There is no way that the two new courts could be floodlit as we would probably not get planning permission for lights, and we do not have enough power to run extra lights
To answer your issues re playability, the astro courts are only unplayable when a layer of water from snow has melted on top of the existing frozen surface, and then subsequently refrozen. If we get a winter of no snow, the astro turf courts should be playable all winter. The tarmac courts are unplayable both in the morning and at night if they are frozen, with or without snow. The top courts also cleared sooner than the astro on a number of occasions this winter due to them being cleared by John Walsh during the day. This matter has gone unnoticed by the majority as you would imagine, and has obviously clouded the judgement of people as to the clearance differences between the different types of courts.
Q. Will the project disrutp the amount of play possible on the other courts when the new ones are built.
A. The main access to the grass court area is through the top three courts. We are investigating other access routes, to try and reduce the amount of disruption. The Parish Council might however hamper these ideas, as they have overiding authority on the area, and we have to ask permission do do pretty much anything. The project managers have discussed alternative arrangements for sessions and these will be put forward when the full extent to the disruption is established.
Q. Could we not have an indoor court there instead?
A. Yes we have thought and looked into this as you would probably imagine! We have tried to cover all the alternatives, and this would not only be the most costly, but would also be the hardest project to take on for a number of reasons.
1. The Parish Council would never give permission for the structure to be erected, so end of discussion.
2. If the Parish council did allow us to have the structure erected, there would be a cost of over £150,000, money we do not have and would struggle to raise.
3. The attraction of a bubble to climb up on and slide down would be too great for some people to ignore, they would end up slashing it to get in and we would be forever repairing it. We have spoken to private clubs that have erected bubbles over courts and this is the story they are telling us. We have not investigated the insurance ramifications regarding injury from people falling off the structure if they have climbed up it, but the way the law works, we would probably be liable if anyone injured themselves.
4. Spending all the clubs money to realistically only improve one court would not be the best use of the clubs funds, and would have to be agreed at an EGM meeting.
Q.I am concerned that this may be a reason for another big hike in the subs, and is the club stretching itself too far?
A. The financial experts in the club would not be proposing this project if they conisdered it to be stetching the club too far!
The finanicial position of the club was highlighted at the AGM, a forum for all members to voice their opinions, and to hear the future plans of the committee. The committee see the project being viable, and should be able to be completed without a large hike in the subscriptions next year. As with all clubs, project can only be undertaken with sound financial decisions, evaluated from information at the present time, we can not predict the memebrship for the next few years, but we can make calculated estimates, from the current membership history records of the club. The membership has grown continually over the last ten years, and we have based our proposals around these projections. We are aware of the current financial situation, and have experts on the committee who are able to advise us in the best path to take.
