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Parks bosses reject tennis courts offer
PARKS bosses are refusing to reopen the tennis courts in Regent’s Park despite residents offering to pay for it.
The Royal Parks Agency terminated the lease to the Regent’s Park Golf and Tennis School in March last year in anticipation of a privately-run five-a-side football complex being built in its place,
but after a heated campaign the plan was thrown out.
Malcolm Kafetz, chairman of the Friends of Regent’s Park and Primrose Hill, said: “It is disgraceful because we have told the Parks we will pay for the courts to be restored and for upkeep, but they have rejected our offer. They keep referring to a report by Dame Jennifer Jenkins that called the school an ‘eyesore’. She is one of our members and she told me she is hopping mad because she didn’t say that at all. She has written to the Parks to tell them that.”
The body of tennis coach Yuri Ouvarov was found hanging from the court in December and a coroner later linked his death to the closure of the school where he worked for 15 years.
His family and colleagues called for the school to be reopened in his name.
A Parks spokesman confirmed they will not reopen the school and would return the site to meadowland.
The courts will be on the agenda for the Friends annual meeting on October 2 in the Danish Church, Regent’s Park, from 7pm. |
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