The Wentworth Falls Tennis Club had been staring down the barrel of a holiday season with damaged courts as they waited for Blue Mountains Council action on drainage problems.
Vice president Caroline Moses said their courts have been damaged due to the three year delay in fixing the drain outside the northern end of the council-owned courts. The club has a grant to refurbish the courts surface – which runs out in June next year – but need the repairs done first. They first approached the Gazette about the problem in early September.
“It is a council responsibility, but we’ve had this ongoing absence of response for years,” secretary Richard Mills said in September.
“It truly is a saga. We are not sure if it is an individual failure or a systemic problem.”
The club held a successful open day at their Falls Road courts last month for their 92 members and large number of casual players – but the club’s specialist coach said one of the courts still isn’t safe to use because of water damage.
In September a council spokeswoman said “the only way to correct the issue was to resurface the courts”.
Council has claimed damage only occurs in very high rainfall – one in 100-year events – but the club officials say they have had “four rain events” this year alone, the last one as late as October.
Some 76.8mm of rain fell torrentially from October 20-23 and Ms Moses said “water poured onto the courts from the upper end of the drain. There was a distinct watermark as far as the net on court 1.”
Mr Mills said it “seems to be total confusion all around [at council] … I can’t believe they think us refurbishing the courts is going to fix the drainage.”
Following the Gazette story, council staff made three visits to the site and promised club officials “specialist staff are developing a schedule of works that will be planned to commence in the near future”. Tennis club officials want the schedule so they can book in their contractor for the refurbishment to meet the time restrictions of their grant.
“Completion of the work is urgently required,” Ms Moses said.
“A schedule of works is needed. We need to give a couple of months notice to our court contractor so an expected date of completion would be appreciated.”
In late November after more calls for answers to the council, club officials were told the Heritage Department needed to approve the works and this was standard operating procedure but news to the club.
But when contacted by the Gazette on Monday a council spokeswoman issued the following good news for the Wentworth Falls tennis club members.
“The schedule of works is expected to be completed by 22 December, 2017. The work is expected to be completed by the end of January, 2018. The Wentworth Falls Tennis Club will be notified as soon as these dates are finalised.”
