Tennis court plans for Acle

Dominic Bareham

TENNIS players in Acle could soon be able to use two new indoor tennis courts if plans by the village's tennis club come to fruition.

The Acle club will be seeking funding from the sport's British governing body the Lawn Tennis Association to provide the new indoor facilities at Acle Recreation Centre, in Bridewell Lane.

Chris Dove, chairman of the centre's management committee, revealed the club's plans at the committee's AGM on Tuesday , but assured the members present very little funding would be coming from the committee's budget.

He also reported the centre had experienced problems with vandalism over the last year, but these had not been as bad as in previous years.

He said: “I am sorry to say that vandalism and bad behaviour will always be with us but this last year does not seem to have been as bad as previous years.

“We have had acts of vandalism and we have had motorbikes and even a car driving over the playing field, but as mentioned last year it is now our policy to report all such instances to the police.”

The meeting also heard:

The floodlights at the centre's car park had been repaired, the cricket scoreboard at the centre had also been updated and repairs had been carried out to the kickboards in the all weather area at the centre.

The centre's auditor John Gallop denied claims made at a meeting of Acle Parish Council that the centre was being “mismanaged” by its trustees.

Councillor Lana Hempsall made the claims at a parish council meeting in January.

But Mr Gallop said: “The running of the centre is good because you prepare budgets which a lot of other people don't do.”

He added: “The minutes are detailed where there is major expenditure, which I like to see and the records are well kept which means I can get access to the accounts quickly when I need to.”

Figures for the year ending December 31 revealed the centre's income was �150,898 and expenditure was �163,078.