Tennis enthusiasts today expressed disappointment after a long-awaited racket sports centre for York suffered another setback.
The £7 million venture would provide the city's first indoor tennis courts, saving players the hassle of driving to Leeds to play in the winter months.
But hopes of starting building work soon have hit the net because of a planning wrangle with the local authority.
The tennis centre, proposed for land at Monks Cross, was supposed to have been on the agenda at the last meeting of the City of York Council's planning committee.
But it was taken off at the last minute, to the dismay of tennis fans who are eagerly awaiting what they expect to be one of the most important decisions in York's sporting history.
Malcolm Huntington, one of the tennis centre's staunch supporters, said: "It is very frustrating for us to have this constantly deferred when we have been looking forward to it for so long."
Although the centre is expected to provide about 80 new jobs, the development, on six acres of land next to Arabesque House at Monks Cross, is classed as "leisure use". The problem is that in the Local Plan for York, the land is classed as being for "employment use".
Ian Thomson, assistant director of planning with City of York Council, said: "It is not that we are against the tennis centre - we do recognise that there would be benefits to having a tennis centre in the city. But it has got to be carefully considered.
"As far as the public are concerned, it might seem like a technical issue. The council has designated the land for employment uses, and attracting high-quality jobs to the city is fundamental. We have a limited supply of such land and we want to be sure that it is used to maximum benefit."
He said the planning application was delayed because the developers, Next Generation, were in discussions with central government over the issue and it was felt prudent to wait until these talks had ended.
Donald Watt, head of operations with Next Generation, said: "Unfortunately it has been put off until June, for reasons I can't go into. There are still a few hurdles to overcome."
The proposed centre will include six indoor and six outdoor tennis courts, an indoor 20-metre swimming pool, a 25-metre outdoor pool, three squash courts, four badminton courts, a fitness suite, bar, restaurant and car park.
If it goes ahead, individual membership is set to cost £600 a year, though schoolchildren will receive a number of hours of free tennis coaching, with the best players being offered tennis scholarships to the David Lloyd Academy.
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