Details of questions asked by members and the corresponding answers will be posted after the Zoom calls. You can use the links below to jump directly to the section you need:
- Supporting Documents
- General development questions & answers
- Mini court development questions & answers
- Padel court questions & answers
- Gym questions & answers
- Zoom call details
You can also use the online form to submit a question in advance.
To help members visualise there is a video below of a canopied panel court. Please note this is 7m in height, the canopy for the mini courts will only be 5m tall.
Supporting documents
AGM Development Proposals – Full Details
General questions and answers
| Q. Why are we no longer pursuing the development with 2 indoor tennis courts and 3 squash courts? |
| A. We have pursued the indoor development over the past 6 years but have not found a way to progress. There has also been a substantial change to the post-pandemic funding of sports - Tennis Scotland are now looking for a minimum of 3 indoor courts in order to provide funding. Furthermore, the immediate need for additional court capacity and an urgent need to resolve issues in the clubhouse led the Management Committee to pursue alternative development proposals that are deliverable now and add substantial value to members. |
| Q. Can the club afford to service the debt? |
| A. We expect to show a cash surplus for the year of around £45,000 to £50,000 with overall cash reserves of around £250,000. We are pursuing an LTA loan as it is interest free and it keeps the reserves for future potential development options. |
| Q. Who is on the redevelopment committee this time? |
| A. The full committee voted to take forward these 3 proposals. A development committee will be formed should members vote in favour. |
| Q.At present we have a large membership & tennis courts are often fully booked. This begs the following questions. 1. Why are we not creating more tennis courts? If not full size why not more mini courts? |
| A. Within the constraints of the current site it is not possible to build additional tennis courts. The proposed mini court redevelopment will allow the area to be used more widely with a configuration of either 3 red courts or two orange courts possible. Both will be set out on the new carpet. |
Mini courts questions and answers
| Q. How will covered mini courts benefit the club? |
| A. Benefits are: • Creates additional court capacity on the main tennis courts for members and the vast majority of red and orange ball will move to these courts • Provides for all year round mini court play at club with extended hours • Opens up additional opportunities – a location for fitness sessions and/or external hires |
| Q. Would it not be far more cost effective to add LED flood lights to the mini courts and re-surface, so they can be used in the dark winter evenings? Do parents want their 4 to 7 year old children under cover in the spring and warm summer days? |
| A. The courts will be downlit from the canopy rather than floodlit from higher above meaning less light pollution from neighbours. There is obviously no weather protection from floodlights only. The canopy will be open at the sides and will let natural light through so will still be good to play in during the spring and summer. |
| Q. Are there any examples of covered mini courts from another tennis clubs? |
| A. There are no examples of outdoor covered mini courts however there are a large number of examples of indoor mini tennis courts. |
| Q. Has there been a shadow survey done for the two bungalows affected by the canopies? |
| A. No. We have spoken to the neighbours directly behind who are happier we are pursuing a canopy over the mini courts rather than a 2 storey building. |
| Q. How high do the canopies go? |
| A. The mini court canopy will be in an arc and be 5m high at the tallest point in the centre |
Padel questions and answers
| Q. Why is the Padel court at an angle to the building? |
| A. To allow the maximum number of car parking spaces. |
| Q. Presumably a senior 'rackets' member can play tennis, squash/racketball & padel under the same subscription & no new membership category will be added? |
| A. To cover the cost of the loan the Padel tennis court be charged to members in tennis and squash playing categories at £5 per hour and to non-members at £25 per hour. |
| Q. Will the Scottish Water pipe in the car park be affected by the Padel court? |
| A. The Scottish Water flood compensation scheme located in the car park will not be breached in any way by the Padel court and Scottish Water are happy the loads created by the court are less than heavy vehicles on the current tarmacadam and parking bays. They have indicated they will not object to a planning application on the current configuration. |
| Q. Could we see a breakdown of the groundworks for the Padel court? |
| A. There are two elements to ground works. The first is for the Padel court itself where foundations, retaining walls, infill are all in the ground works. The porous tarmacadam’s and surface are part of court installation. The second part of ground works is the car park, where a foundation and retaining wall in the banking of the burn are required, along with infill. We have taken for the cost of haunching for the new car parking bays, the bays themselves and the associated gravel as part of the ground works provision. |
| Q. Have the Council indicated any issues about planning permission, specifically the side window for the Redhursy hotel? |
| A. East Renfrewshire Planning Department do not believe a Padel court will substantially affect the view from the Redhurst Hotel and that a Padel court is in keeping with the designation of the land for sporting use. |
| Q. Will the work for the Padel courts have any impact on the flood risk? |
| A. Over the past 2 years we have been undertaking various actions to reduce the risk of flooding onto our mini courts. The first stage of this was successful in preventing flooding between the trees and laurel bushes but displaced the risk to the middle of the laurel bushes where a section of banking is reduced in height. We have a contractor due to install further burn banking improvements as soon as weather permits. KLD Contracts are ground engineers and assisted with the first burn improvement project. The flood risk assessment prepared for the club shows a height for the banking that prevents the 1 in 100 years plus the allowance for climate change affecting the mini courts. The Padel court is located in a place which the study shows is not subject to flooding from the burn. The official position of SEPA is that where the burn is breached along our boundary line water should overflow onto the mini courts and then onto the tennis courts and not into a neighbouring property. They are happy with the work undertaken as it is a “green” and not an “engineered” solution and simply repairs erosion over the past 30 years and is not something new to the watercourse. |
| Q. How will the car park be affected? will the turning circle be large enough? |
| A. The last car parking space in the current central section of parking is removed to create a turning circle larger than currently provided in that area. This space is reclaimed at the top of the car park towards the burn. While a net one loss of car parking is shown on the plan provided to members, there is net 0 loss based on this additional space being created. |
| Q. Will deliveries to the club be affected? |
| A. There will be no impact on the ability of delivery drivers to bring bar stock from the car park to the side door opposite the mini courts, as is currently the mechanism for deliveries. The paths rounds the building will comply with Disability Discrimination Act requirements and will permit free movement of goods and persons round the building. |
| Q. Where will the bins be located? |
| A. The existing bin compound could remain, with bins brought round to the car park along same paths as deliveries would be made. Another option is to relocate bins to a new compound along the squash court wall in the lower car park. |
| Q. What are the tolerances on the canopy over the Padel courts for wind? |
| A. All structures that are subject to planning permission and a building warrant require an SER Certificate issued by a structural engineer in order to comply with building regulations that are specific to local conditions. Padel Tech have installed canopies to courts in the Caribbean designed to withstand category 5 hurricanes and have 5 canopied Padel courts in Scotland (Thistle and ESC). Wind speed and snow loading conditions for Giffnock will be applied by East Renfrewshire Council and our own structural engineer will provide an SER certificate for building control to certify the structure and materials built conform to said standard. |
Gym questions and answers
| Q. Why are we proposing a gym? |
| A. To provide additional sporting facilities for fitness and conditioning, bring members of all three sports together as well as providing an additional revenue stream for the club. |
| Q. What impact will creating a gym have on functions and room lets? |
| A. We will no longer have room lets. However, the income will be replaced by gym subscriptions. We are now down to only 3 Lets which are becoming increasingly problematic with a heavy reliance on volunteers. |
| Q. Where will juniors go? |
| A. The way members use the club has changed with more members, young and old, wishing to make use of the lounge bar area. Also, given the floor space has to be clear for room lets it is not possible to have an attractive club room for children and have room lets in the same space. The Committee feel this is a better use of space since the club room is under utilised. The capacity of the lounge bar will be increased by 12. |
| Q. What will the capacity of the gym be? |
| 14 people at any one time. |
| Q. If the club has structural issues, why are we not pursuing a new clubhouse? |
| A. The longer term plan of the committee is to pursue an improved clubhouse over two floors. All 3 proposals are about providing additional service and capacity to members while protecting and building the capital for a future 2 storey clubhouse development. |
| Q. How many people actually responded to the survey asking for a Gym? |
| A. The survey carried out in 2020 by the club and the survey carried out by the LTA both indicated support for a gym. |
| Q. Over the years the clubroom has been used for all sorts of functions - children’s Halloween/Xmas parties,discos, games nights, Burns Suppers, Hockey dinners, casino nights, race nights, coffee mornings, plant sales, craft fairs, AGMs etc etc. Does this mean that future committees and social conveners will be unable to use the clubroom for such purposes? |
| A. There will obviously be more restricted space for functions. However, the majority of functions that have been held at the club over the last 3-4 years have mainly used the nicer setting of lounge bar. We feel it is a better use of space for a gym which will be used regularly, compared to a small percentage of our overall functions that use the club room infrequently. |
| Q. How much would it cost to rent the gym equipment needed and how many members would need to commit to an annual gym subscription to offset this cost and the loss of income from lets in a pre pandemic year? |
| 83 members would need to commit to an annual subscription to cover the costs. |
| Q. Will club require to employ an instructor to train members on how to use equipment safely and supervise? |
| We have a number of tennis coaches including Mark Openshaw who are qualified personal trainers and can provide gym inductions which will be mandatory before the gym can be used. The gym will not constantly be supervised but access will be restricted by card to only those members who have completed the induction. |
| Q. Will further insurance be required for the gym activities? |
| Our existing LTA insurance covers for the gym, no additional insurance is required. |
| Q. What is the business plan to complete against the low budget gyms that offer gym classes, personal training and much larger variety of equipment that the proposed gym can offer? |
| A. We do not see ourselves as competing directly with larger gyms. However it will offer value to to those members who can consolidate their gym and sports membership into one and benefit form a cost saving. The plan is to set the price at £12 per month, by way of cost comparison, a Pure Gym standard subscription is £18.99 per month, with a 30% discount offered to students (£13.29 per month). |
| Q. Could we please see a plan for the proposed reconfiguration? |
| A. Please see the link in the supporting documents below |
| Q. What is the total cost commitment, and for how long, for the rental of gym equipment? |
| A. Estimated cost is £840 per month with a rental term of 3 years. |
Zoom Call Details
To provide you with as much detail as possible and allow you to ask questions in advance, we are setting up 3 Zoom calls in the run up to the AGM, each one focused on one of the 3 key areas:
Meeting ID: 830 6503 3905
Passcode: 598938
Meeting ID: 826 4555 0177
Passcode: 202970
Meeting ID: 872 2568 6858
Passcode: 607068
Please note the calls will be recorded.
You can submit questions in advance.