WELLINGTON Tennis Club has been awarded a £5,000 grant by local councillors to help finance a third court for players.

The overall cost of the project is £49,000 and it is hoped work on installing the court will begin next spring – although clearing the site has started in readiness.

The club has said the extra facilities will be access-friendly for wheelchair players – something which is not currently possible.

Now members of the Wellington Town Council have agreed to support the project – although not everyone was convinced that it should back it with the full £5,000 grant which had been requested.

Club chairman Sue Rackley told the council’s finance committee there was a growing need to expand the facilities because more and more people wanted to play tennis.

“We are chock-a-block with juniors and there is a demand for the club to grow,” she said. “We are in competition with Blackbrook at Taunton and we don’t want to be turning away people because we only have two courts.”

Councillors were told that with the limited number of courts only so many players could play at any one time.

Cllr John Thorne had concerns that the council had already given a £1,500 grant to the club in February 2016 for a third court and was uneasy about handing over another £5,000 for the same project.

“I am sure everyone would support the tennis club and if they had come to us now asking for £5,000 we would give it,” he said. “But to come for £5,000 after we have already given£1,500 is a bit much. I think we should perhaps give £3,500.”

Cllr Marcus Barr was also concerned that the council was looking at giving away more grant money when the budget put aside for that only had £631 left in the coffers.

“We can’t carry on spending money out of other budgets when we have spent all the grant money,” he said. “We had £15,000 on the table for grants back along but now we have only got £631 left. We haven’t got trees growing where money falls off.

“I’m sorry to say it but we can’t keep spending money we haven’t got.”

But Cllr Andrew Govier said that the £15,000 initially set aside for grants was ‘a finger in the air’ and that there was money within the council which could be used.

“We have just got to make sure we don’t start over-spending in all those areas,” he said.

The Mayor, Cllr Janet Lloyd, said that money from the council’s health and well-being budget could be used to support the tennis club.

Cllr Vivienne Stock-Williams said: “I understand the concerns of other councillors but I’m very supportive of this.

“We have been supporting the football and cricket clubs but we haven’t done a lot for the tennis club.”

Cllr Thorne reminded councillors that awarding £5,000 now would mean the council had actually given £6,500 to the project.

Councillors voted narrowly 4-3 in favour of the application – a decision which was later ratified by the full council.