Petition calls for historic Brighton tennis club to be protected

Hundreds of people have urged councillors to help save a historic tennis club in Brighton.

They fear for the future of Badgers Tennis Club which started in the 1880s in Church Place in Kemp Town.

A petition signed by 564 people was handed in by a neighbour of the club and former member Linda Miller at Hove Town Hall yesterday (Thursday 19 September).

Mrs Miller told the Brighton and Hove City Council Economic Development and Culture Committee that Badgers was the oldest tennis club in Brighton and Hove.

The petition was headed Save Badgers Tennis Club. It said: “We, the undersigned, including local residents and members of Badgers Tennis Club, call on Brighton and Hove City Council to retain the Badgers Tennis Club site in Church Place, Kemp Town, as a site for leisure, recreation and sport and not to allow it to be developed for housing or any other use.”

Mrs Miller said: “The site has four good courts and a good clubhouse, built only 12 years ago.

“The men’s team plays in the County First Division. The club has an excellent junior programme.

“Following the revelation in May that in 2010 the coaches had sold the club from under them, the members have created a member-run company with plans to make the club more open to the local community and schools.

“This is more than just a leisure facility, more than playing sport and being healthy. People join for the social life. It is part of people’s lives.

“A lot of the members are prepared to invest their time and energy in running this club.

“We are asking the council to give us the assurance that this is land designated for leisure, recreation and sport and that no change of use will ever be granted.

“It seems that the position was clear in 2002.

“Michael Hamilton Pope, who had owned the site since 1953, made the decision to sell.

“The council told him that planning permission to develop would never be granted.

“This determined the price and he sold to two of the tennis coaches for £90,000.

“But in August 2010, when the tennis coaches sold to property developers, it would seem that the council’s ‘for leisure, recreation and sport’ designation was ignored.”

The club was bought by three brothers – Bipin Kamarshibhai Chotai, 66, a phamarcist, Piyoosh Kamarshibhai Chotai, 62, a chartered accountant, and Bharat Kamarshibhai Chotai, 56, director of Kamsons pharmacy.

Mrs Miller said: “The current owners, the Chotai brothers, saw it as a site for potential development and paid a staggering £1 million.

“The new owners were not interested in running a tennis club.

“The club continued, run by one of the coaches (Mel Bowden), with a short-term lease, not covered by the 1953 Landlord and Tenant Act, with a clause stating that he would not oppose the owners’ plans to develop the site.

“In May a 150 per cent rent increase was announced, taking it from £12,000 to £30,000 a year, the owners’ intention being to force the club to close – an empty site facilitating a change of use.

“In response to the strong opposition to the development of the site, expressed in the petition before you, the owners are now proposing a five-year lease deal, again outside the 1953 Act, with a clause stating that the club must not oppose the owners’ plans to develop the site.

“A five-year lease means people can still play tennis. But building up the membership, maintaining the courts and facilities, investing time, energy and money in a club destined to close is untenable.

“The big question of whether or not the site will be developed is just being deferred not decided.

“The owners probably made a mistake in buying this land for the price they paid.

“Although the normal procedure would be to wait for a planning application to be made, this just leaves the future of the tennis club hanging in the balance.

“We would like to ask the council for a definitive statement that this site is for leisure, receation and sport.

“The draft City Plan supports this site for tennis club use but the SHLAA document (Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment) has Badgers Tennis Club listed as a possible development site for 12 houses.

“We know that people need housing but people also need recreation.

“This is a well-developed site for tennis with an enthusiastic team of people wanting to keep it that way.

“The petition is asking the council not to grant a change of use for this historic site.

“Please let it continue as a tennis club for another 120 years.

“If the council is able to make the position clear, the owners of the site and the people using the site will all know where they stand.”

The chairman of the Economic Development and Culture Committee Councillor Geoffrey Bowden, who lives near the club, said that no planning application had been received.

Any application would be considered in the proper way, he said.

And he pointed out that the City Plan aimed to protect existing sports facilities.

He added that if the owners applied to build housing on the site, they would have to prove that it was not an important open space.