Hillsborough Park: Anger over Sheffield Council ‘plans to advertise the disposal of part of park’

The campaign group Friends of Hillsborough Park have described plans to advertise the ‘disposal’ of the part of the park which includes its tennis courts and multi-use games area as ‘unbelievable timing’.

The organisation has already objected to the council’s 'pay to play' plan for an upgraded multi-use games area (MUGA) in the park. Four floodlit tennis courts would be moved to make room for the MUGA and the plan is to replace only three.

The Friends groups said on its social media page yesterday: “We have stayed away from this for some days now as it is pretty depressing and everyone knows what state the park is in.

“However, today the council Parks and Countryside ‘Better Parks’ planners have told us that they intend to advertise tomorrow the ‘disposal’ of that part of the park which is the tennis courts and multi-use games area. This is part of the plan to build another café and build paid-for sports facilities on the free-to-use MUGA.

“The timing is unbelievable - at the point at which there will be less grass to play on they plan to have less free-to-use MUGA as well. We will continue to oppose this commercialisation of a public park and will post details, when they are available, about where objections can be raised.”

In June, Sheffield Council’s charity trustee sub-committee decided the scheme, which would replace much of the current multi-use games area with tennis courts, partly free and partly paid-for activities, should go forward to the next stage of a legal process.

The park, like many in the city, is the property of a charity trust, of which the council is the sole trustee. By law, the proposal has to be advertised in the press to allow people to make comments and objections, which will then be considered by the sub-committee.

The company running the activity hub and the park tennis courts would be given a 25-year lease of the space. The new facilities would include three new tennis courts, a resurfaced, redesigned and free-to-use multi-use MUGA, a refreshment area and toilets.

New activities on offer in the paid-for area may include ‘padel’ tennis – a simplified form of the game – and mini golf. The plan has been put together with support and funding from the Lawn Tennis Association, who want to widen access to tennis coaching, and Sport England.

A petition to save the MUGA has been set up by campaigners opposed the the scheme. It states: “We believe that this is commercialisation of a public park, with little regard for those people in Hillsborough community who currently use the MUGA for free. With the current cost-of-living crisis, families and communities struggling with high energy bills and high demand for food banks we believe that these plans will leave our community worse off.”

Jo Pearce, of Sheffield parks and countryside service, said in June that staff were concerned that a decision was not deferred again because it could put £150,000 of Sport England funding in jeopardy as deadlines were tight. She said £25,000 funding had already been lost by delays.