By NIKKI TODD
POTTSVILLE tennis players have been sent back to the club house after Tweed Shire Council knocked back plans to build a new tennis centre at Black Rocks for fear of disturbing the local koala population.
Councillors last Thursday voted four-three against a development application to build the new tennis centre and associated car park in the recreational area west of the new Black Rocks estate, citing concerns for the dwindling Tweed Coast koala population.
The area, which is surrounded by dense native bushland, was cleared several years ago as part of the Black Rocks estate and is already used as a cricket oval.
It was thought suitable for the new tennis facility after the NSW Department of Lands, which owns the land upon which Pottsville’s existing tennis club and four aging courts is situated, ordered the club off the land to make way for a future bypass road for the village.
But koala activists, who gathered more than 3850 signatures against the DA, said a tennis centre operating under floodlights at night would have a devastating effect on surrounding koalas.
Voting against the application, deputy mayor Michael Armstrong said the council did not have the luxury of a few thousand koalas to play with.
“We’ve only got a few hundred koalas left,” Cr Armstrong said.
“I would hate to think of the day when our grandchildren read about koalas from a history book.
“We accept we do need a new tennis facility but not here – it is that simple.”
Greens Cr Katie Milne said this was another very important issue for the koala and would severely impact on the adjacent wildlife corridor.
“The main issue is the community has spoken loudly and clearly – more than one third of the Pottsville population has signed a petition against the development in a very short period of time,” she said.
Cr Milne said the issue would be “simple to resolve” by asking the Department of Lands to refurbish the existing courts.
“We need to get to the bottom of that now that the bypass road is not going ahead,’’ Cr Milne said.
“I don’t see the need to remove the courts that are there now at all.’’
Pottsville Beach Tennis Club president Julia Franzos said Thursday’s decision was bitterly disappointing after more than five years of work developing the Black Rocks option.
She said the only solution in the short-term would be to refurbish the existing courts which were in a dilapidated state and in desperate need of repair.
“Tennis is just so popular in Pottsville,” Ms Franzos said.
“We have four courts – two clay courts and two threadbare synthetic courts – we’ve applied for all the available grants in the last three years but have only been lucky in getting small amounts.
“We need at least $40,000 to resurface two courts and then apply to get $40,000 to redo the other two. We have a lot of upkeep and struggle to keep them going.”
The club boasts more than 100 members participating in weekly competition in addition to hundreds of school children who use the courts each week for tennis lessons.
