A PETITION aimed at stopping pay to play proposals being introduced at Petersfield tennis courts has the backing of a former Petersfield mayor and around 150 residents.
Keen tennis player and a retired town councillor Sue Harwood says if it goes ahead it could put people off using the courts at The Avenue in Petersfield.
They are owned by Petersfield Town Council who has been running a consultation to see if people would pay to use them.
Sue, who was mayor for a year from May 2014, said: “I understand very well that the council has limited funds, but this plan saddens me, it can only cause use of the courts to fall away.
“How can it possibly encourage grassroots development of the game if access is restricted to those able and prepared to find the money to play.”
The petition was handed to town council clerk Neil Hitch by organiser Sarah Hicks, who has lived in Petersfield for about 25 years and uses the courts two or three times a week.
She said: “The use of the courts will dwindle, charging will put people off using them.”
And the campaigners also say council plans to also introduce an online booking system will make the courts less popular, putting off casual users.
Mrs Harwood said: “Introducing a booking system is bad enough, but this pay to play proposal will reduce play even more. It would raise a small amount of money, but Petersfield as a whole would be left very much poorer.”
The council consultation on the pay to play proposal has now closed, and Mr Hitch says a decision on the proposal won’t be made till all the comments have been studied.
But the council says the online booking scheme is likely to go ‘live’ in November.