West End letters: Tennis coaches | Cllr Paul Dimoldenberg | Paddington Green Recreation Ground

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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 18 September 2009

Why can’t tennis coaches work at Rec?

LABOUR councillors have called for an independent inquiry into the way in which two long-standing and well-regarded tennis coaches working at Paddington Recreation Ground have been forced out of business by huge Westminster City Council fee increases.
The council has also refused to allow the coaches to include their phone and email details in the Paddington Rec information leaflets and has also refused to give the coaches the ability to cancel bookings on the day as a result of client illness or other unavoidable problems. Last autumn I presented a 300-name petition to the council and since then the Conservatives have ignored most of the practical and positive points which I have put to them aimed at resolving the current unsatisfactory situation at Paddington Rec.
What possible reason can there be for not allowing the two tennis coaches to include their phone and email details in the tennis information leaflets, as they have done for the past decade and is standard practice at other public courts in central London?
Why has the council deliberately ignored the fact there is a big difference in the cancellation arrangements for individuals and coaches in that when an individual cancels on the day there is no financial penalty but when the coach has to cancel on the day (that is, giving less than 24 hours notice) he still has to pay the court fee?
After battling away for the past 12 months, I now believe that the council has no intention of making it possible, in any practical and meaningful way, of enabling the two tennis coaches to operate at Paddington Rec.
I cannot understand why this is so, other than there must be a hidden council agenda somewhere which is preventing this.
I am determined to uncover what this hidden agenda is and I have called on council chief executive Mike More to establish an independent inquiry into the operation of the contract at Paddington Rec, including the appointment and subsequent recent departure of the head tennis coach.
Cllr Paul Dimoldenberg
Leader of the Labour Group
Westminster City Council

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
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Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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