Statement from Haringey Council re Tennis

Tennis Refurbishment Project.

Works to refurbish the old courts on the west side will begin on the 19th January.

The works will consist of creating 2 new courts with new fencing, pillars and nets on the old courts. Mini courts will be installed in the space left over. New digital controlled gates will be fitted to the new courts and courts 1 and 2. It is hoped that the works will take about 1 month to complete, depending on the weather. Initially the courts will have temporarily lines and in the spring there will be another short closure for court painting and permanent line marking.

Floodlights will be installed later in the year when the procurement and lead in time for the contractor is complete. Around that time the gates will become live and the code you receive when booking, will need to be keyed in to gain entry.

It should also be noted that there will be other minor disruption around power supply works and gate works for courts 1 and 2. If these are likely to affect court bookings, we will endeavour to inform you in good time.

Hedge Works: these will be programmed prior to the 19th January and courts 3, 4 and 5 will be closed for these works. We will endeavour to give you 7 days notice of these works but this may not be possible due to contractor availability.

South hedge:
- Reducing the height of the row of conifer trees by 2m.
- Shaping and significantly trimming the trees to prevent overhang onto the tennis courts.
- Felling the first 5m of the inner row of conifer trees to allow a new entrance to the courts.
West hedge:
- Various works to reduce and remove mixed species, shrubs and self-seeded trees that are predominantly overhanging onto the tennis courts or growing through the existing perimeter fencing.
- A new fence will be installed approx. 1 metre in from the existing West fence, the existing fence will remain in place, creating a 1 metre void between the old and new fence line.

Unfortunately, the trees, some which were self-seeded and all of poor quality, are overhanging and causing damage to the existing courts and would do the same when it is renovated if not removed.

We will be planting high-quality replacement trees elsewhere in the park, so the canopy cover will quickly be restored.

Courts 3, 4 and 5 will not be bookable/available during the dates detailed above.

We apologise for any inconvenience that these works may course.

Any further enquiries please email get.active@haringey.gov.uk

FOPP RESPONSE

You’ll have seen that the Leylandii Hedge has been removed.

This was necessitated because Haringey insisted on installing Floodlights to the west courts which meant the Junior Courts needed to be sited at the far end instead of the near the pathway.

FOPP asked repeatedly for the Floodlights plan to be revoked and for the Junior Courts to be sited by the path with unrestricted access.

Despite around 50 objections to the Floodlight planning application the decision went in favour of the floodlights.

Friends of Priory Park felt it was important that the Junior Courts be accessible without having to sign up to the LTA App to receive a code to unlock the Digilocks that will soon be installed on both sets of tennis courts.

To have the open access to the junior courts Haringey insisted that the fencing needed to extend outside the exisiting footprint of the Tennis Courts so the hedgerow needed to come down.

FOPP argued that another solution should be sought and that if the hedgerow needed to come down, as it was a significant feature of the park the local community should be consulted.

Haringey rejected our arguments. Haringey informed us on Wednesday at 4:30pm that their plan was to remove hedge and replant a new hedgerow with native species to encourage biodiversity.

We did not however receive notice of when work would start, not were we invited to comment on the plan.

FOPP were informed of the plans, there was not (as Haringey’s notices state) engagement.