WHAT a shame that the Environment Agency has objected to Bridport Tennis Club’s application for a very modest extension to its clubhouse and the installation of toilet facilities.
Bridport Tennis Club provides playing facilities for its members and also the public, thus providing a sporting facility for both local residents and visitors on holiday. In addition, it has a junior coaching programme which the club would like to develop further.
Bridport Tennis Club also plays host to many other clubs as it is a member of the Yeovil League and inter-club matches are played both summer and winter.
The existing clubhouse is tiny, cramped and uncomfortable for the club’s own members and visiting players.
As there is no toilet, adult and junior players have to make their way to the public toilets at the bus station. In the evenings, there is only one unisex toilet open – and it is always embarrassingly dirty.
Our clubhouse is built on stilts to allow the flow of flood water and the increase in footprint of the building would be miniscule.
The benefit of improvement to the facilities might well help the development of our club, in particular its junior wing, and certainly would benefit Bridport’s profile as we represent Bridport to other clubs in Dorset and Somerset.
In this context, for the Environment Agency to refuse consent seems perverse in the extreme.
DIANA DUDGEON
Bridport Tennis Club member and committee member
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