Haverhill Lawn Tennis Club was once surrounded by green grass and trees, but we failed in our attempt to have the new development located elsewhere in the town.

We now find ourselves overshadowed and surrounded by a large, multi-storey building and car parks!

Believe it or not, we are to receive no compensation for the loss of privacy, general disruption and potential problems that will undoubtedly arise from such close proximity to the new development. The closure of the leisure centre will also cut off our only access to shelter, changing facilities and advertising space.

Although St Edmundsbury Council is aiming to provide temporary toilet facilities we, more than ever before, need a permanent clubhouse at our town centre site in order to secure the future success of the club.

In short, we need a clubhouse and we are looking to local businesses for help and support.

As you may remember, we used to own land next to the leisure centre along with our own courts and clubhouse (now the new car park for the leisure centre, cinema and restaurants).

However, in order to pay for the new courts, we unfortunately had to sell this land along with our clubhouse and independence.

The new courts still belong to the tennis club but the land is now rented from St Edmundsbury. A metal container currently acts as storage space and wet weather shelter for players! Not much of an advert for the town we think you’ll agree!

We are a small, friendly club, which is still going strong despite all the construction work being carried out at the leisure centre. We desperately need a clubhouse at the courts for storage, and to provide shelter and a social meeting place for players and visiting teams.

We hold a number of events throughout the year and each time we have to set up gazebos and makeshift refreshment facilities.

A number of events have had to be cancelled because we have nowhere suitable to shelter if the weather is poor. Gazebos don’t like windy and wet conditions!

As far as we know, we are the only major sports club in the town without clubhouse facilities. The expense of building the superb new courts a few years ago left us with little spare cash.

A clubhouse would provide a focus, and sense of identity and independence. We have approached St Edmundsbury and a number of other agencies, but have had no success in securing a grant or funding.

We are hoping to build a solid, brick-built structure with good security. A wooden structure, although good to look at, would be unsuitable in such a central and busy location.

We are hoping that local businesses and benefactors might be able to help us fund the building of a new clubhouse at the courts.

Involvement would offer excellent opportunities for sponsorship and publicity at a location soon to become a focus for leisure and entertainment in the town.