THE COMMITTEE at Redditch Tennis Club has reiterated its call to Mettis Aerospace to resolve the issues surrounding its base.
We reported last week how the club had been locked out of its premises on the site of Redditch Sports and Social Club over a dispute concerning £500-a-month charges.
The club claims Redditch Borough Football Club (RBFC), which has levied the charges, has no right in doing so as the section of the site where the courts are is not included in the lease RBFC has and it has not spent a penny developing it.
A Redditch Tennis Club spokesperson sad: “RTC has been granted free and uninterrupted use of the tennis area by HDA (Mettis), the landlord of the site.
“We understand RTC has no contractual relationship with RBFC in respect of the tennis courts and is looking to engage with Mettis to confirm it continues to have free and uninterrupted use of the tennis courts, as stipulated in the lease.”
But the club says despite several attempts to contact Mettis to discuss the situation, the company had ‘so far ignored and rejected the request for help’.
The club added Mettis, on the ‘Corporate Social Responsibility policy’ section of its website said it ‘strived to be a good corporate neighbour and recognised the responsibility of working in partnership with the communities in which it operated’.
The RTC spokesperson added: “Mettis’ total lack of engagement and help over the last nine months contradicts what it says in its Corporate Social Responsibility policy.”
Members of the club held a protest outside Mettis Aerospace in Redditch which, the spokesperson added, was aimed at ‘reminding the firm of its policy to care for the local community and to encourage it to step in to find a resolution’.
“Mettis are landowners of the site in Batchley that Redditch Tennis Club has been on for over 40 years, but Redditch Borough Football Club decided to lock us out on July 28 despite having no authority to do so.”
RBFC, which pays Mettis £1,000 for its lease, issued a statement last week claiming the charges would go towards the day-to-day running of the social club, including electricity, water health and safety inspections, site security and other overheads.
It added the trustees, coaches and board members were volunteers and received no financial gain.
The tennis club said each of its members joined the social club and paid an annual fee as part of the agreement, along with floodlight tokens for the courts, helping pay for its upkeep.
Renowned reputation
Redditch Tennis Club has a renowned reputation in the sport with players becoming county champions, making it to Wimbledon and turning professional.
Among them are Robin Whitewood who has just won the eight and under Hereford and Worcester County Championships in Malvern.
He has also won seven LTA tournaments in a row and has been selected for player development training at Nottingham’s National Tennis Centre by the LTA.
Robin’s dad Mark said: “I used to pick him up from Batchley First School at 3pm and we’d walk straight over the road to the club for a smash and I’m absolutely furious at the cowardly mentality that is restricting his progress, their conscience must be eating them from inside.
“My eight-year-old is absolutely distraught and I’ve been told by a top coach that the other lads at this national development training probably train eight-hours-a-week.
“Robin can’t even access the courts at his own club.
“I paid £80 at the beginning of last summer for myself and Robin for membership at RTC for our first ever year of playing together and as we live local we were always popping over there.
“Now these people have put a stop to it, where’s the sport in that?
“We should be giving kids opportunities, not taking them away.”
A crowdfunding campaign by Redditch Tennis Club last year raised £30,000 towards installing Red Plus clay courts which would make it one of the few places in England to have the much sought-after surface.
Plans for those courts have now had to be put on hold until a resolution is found.
The Standard contacted Mettis both last week and this week but was still awaiting a response at the time of going to press.
