Tennis coaches across Merton have said they fear for their livelihoods after the council decided to award all contracts for providing lessons to one provider.
Coaches believe Merton Council has ‘deprived people’ of a choice by selecting one business to provide coaching for the whole borough.
Many Wimbledon locals, who now stand to lose their long-time coaches as a result, say the council has been ‘unfair’ and ‘non-transparent’ to local businesses in the process.
The decision has attracted a groundswell of opposition, including from the Wimbledon MP and a near 1,000-strong petition.
Merton Council recently launched a tender for a borough-wide tennis coaching contract, that would see one company responsible for official coaching on the borough’s 51 council owned tennis courts.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) understands that this was done in an attempt to monetise the use of tennis courts for coaching.
According to Wimbledon based coaches, this original tender did not cover courts 1-10 in Wimbledon Park.
The LTA, which gets a lot of its funding from the All England Lawn Tennis Club, also sought to make the Wimbledon Park courts the only floodlit courts in the borough. As a result, they are among the most popular.
Soon after the tender was launched, the council announced that Merton based coaching provider Emma Wells Tennis had won the contract to provide services across the borough. This decision would mean the company would be the sole, council-backed, provider of tennis coaching on all the borough’s courts and would work with them and the LTA to encourage uptake of the sport.
However, according to Wimbledon Park councillor Tony Reiss, it was soon revealed that the tender would in fact include courts 1-10, where many coaches had operated their businesses for years. He told the LDRS that this decision to award Emma Wells the contact would leave them without ‘a playing facility in Merton to to be able to do all of their tennis coaching’.
Coaches, like Steve Cockell of Live, Love Sport, who has operated on those courts for eight years, says the tender decision has effectively created a monopoly in the borough, and is denying residents the chance to choose a coach that suits their level and ability. He also now fears the decision will threaten his business.
In a statement published on November 22, Merton Council said: “The council is under extreme financial pressure because of forces beyond our control. So, the council sought a professional coaching company to provide coaching and run the courts on our behalf – for an income that will be put back into the courts to ensure they stay well maintained. In addition, a stipulation of the LTA grant was an annual £65,000 fund to pay for future court upgrades and refurbishment.
“The council underwent an open and competitive tender process to find the best company to do this – and, importantly, to also make sure the coaching was of the very best quality, price and to the highest safeguarding standards.
“The contract was awarded to Tennis in Merton – previously Emma Wells Tennis. Emma is a renowned coach. We understand that the contract means other coaches, who have been using the courts for free to run their businesses, may feel upset.”
However, according to Cockell, Merton’s statement that these coaches had been using the courts for free is misleading. He told the LDRS how he, and a number of other coaches, have been paying thousands of pounds over the years for use of the courts for coaching purposes.
He said that coaches who operated on those courts deliberately did not enter the tender as they thought their courts would not be impacted. The eventual revelation that they would be included led many of the coaches to conclude that the tender process was not fair and transparent.
Furthermore, he claims residents were not properly consulted on the intention to fundamentally change local sports provision by introducing a ‘monopoly provider’. Now, he believes the coaches will only be able to provide their services on the Wimbledon Park courts until March 2025.
Reiss told the LDRS how hundreds of people across Wimbledon, including himself, had lost the ability to chose a tennis coach that suited them as a result of this decision. Wimbledon’s new Lib Dem MP Paul Kohler has also expressed his concern over the decision.
A petition calling for a reversal of the decision on Change.org has since gained nearly 1,000 signatories, and attracted numerous angry comments from tennis fans across the borough. The petition reads: “The decision treats local businesses extremely unfairly, in a way which we simply cannot support.
“Other local tennis coaches have been successfully coaching in Wimbledon Park for, in some cases, decades and have now had their livelihoods summarily taken away from them. In some cases, we are told long serving and much loved coaches have been given only four weeks’ notice to leave the courts.”
One commenter, Heather McColm, said: “Public tennis courts should not be allocated to a single coaching business. Members of the community should be free to use public courts as they wish, including with whichever coach they wish.
“The tender process also appears to have been hugely lacking in transparency and accountability to the public’s wishes in how public facilities are used. Merton Council continue to behave appallingly, with only their own interests at heart.”
Another, SJ Bahk, commented: “I just signed this petition because our community deserves better! Wimbledon Park tennis courts have always been a space for inclusivity, choice, and support for small businesses. Handing control to a single monopoly threatens not only the livelihoods of local coaches and businesses but also the quality and accessibility of sports for our families and children. Let’s stand together to ensure our voices are heard and that Wimbledon Park tennis courts remain a space for everyone.”
A spokesperson for Merton Council said: “Merton Council has invested nearly £1 million in the borough’s public tennis courts for the benefit of everyone in the borough, nearly half of which came from an LTA grant. These courts are now some of the highest quality in the country.
“All qualified coaches can – and are encouraged – to apply to work under Tennis in Merton. From now on, all commercial activities must be conducted under the Tennis in Merton umbrella, and independent coaching is no longer permitted.
“Residents can still book our courts for free or low-cost, and our facilities will continue to host a range of activities to support people of all ages to enjoy tennis.”
