New Tennis Courts Served up in Llandybie.
The community of Llandybie has celebrated its newly refurbished tennis courts in a launch event that was marked by the Chair of Llandybie Tennis Club and the Chair of Llandybie Community Council making historic first serves at the courts cheered on by Community councillors and tennis enthusiasts.
The Llandybie Community Council project will safeguard tennis at Llandybie that has been part of the heritage of the village since the 1920’s. Llandybie Tennis Club has seen a surge in its membership in recent years and has reinstated a coaching timetable that saw 180 young people and mixed adults receive professional coaching in the last 12 months.
The Tennis courts open free to all the community are part of the Park and Sports area served by the Tennis and Bowls Pavilion taken over by Llandybie Community Council in 2016 asset transfer from Carmarthenshire County Council which includes 10 children’s parks, a junior football pitch and changing rooms and around 115 rights of way footpaths.
Speaking at the launch event Chair of Llandybie Tennis Club, Helen Morris stated “We as a club are so grateful to the Community Council for maintaining this asset that has become so important to the life of the village in terms of its social life, health and well-being. Our club relies on it for its existence and we have in the last two years seen our membership rise and now have a women’s team and two men’s teams and feature in the both the summer and winter leagues supported by Tennis Wales.”
Chair of Llandybie Community Council, Cllr Julian Tandy; “We have a good track record of looking after our assets and carefully managing our budget spend raised by the local community through the precept. Park tennis venues are vital in providing accessible and affordable opportunities for communities to pick up a racket and get active, no matter their age, gender, background, ability, or disability. Tennis Wales’s insight shows that park venues are particularly important in driving improved female participation and access to tennis for those from lower socio-economic groups.
However, around 45% of all park tennis venues need some form of investment or renovation work, to ensure that courts are at a standard that can provide opportunities to sustainably grow participation. Insight also shows that one of the biggest barriers to participation is finding, booking and accessing a court, group activity, or finding someone to play with.”
Clerk of the Community Council Dai Nicholas; “The project was made possible by the Carmarthenshire County Council managed Betws Wind Farm Fund who awarded £15,000 and the William Brown Hill Fund administered by Llys Cennen Solicitors in Ammanford who awarded £3,500.
This is a good example of how we make our community money go further, we are currently working on similar co funded projects at children’s play areas in Saron, Blaenau and Penygroes and recently awarded funds in a joint funded project that has delivered a new children’s play area in Caerbryn.”
Across Wales, there are over 100 public parks with 300+ tennis courts. Investment into public park tennis courts will ensure they are available for local people to enjoy for years ahead. During 2020 and 2021, more than 130,000 adults played tennis at least once in Wales, with 40% of these participants playing in a public park.
Pictured;
Chair of Llandybie Community Council, Cllr Julian Tandy taking the first serve on the newly refurbished tennis courts.
Chair of Llandybie Tennis Club. Helen Morris, Taking the first serve on behalf ofvLlandybie Tennis Club.
The Llandybie Tennis Club men’s second team with club committee members and a local Llandybie Community Councillors.
Love your park 2025
Love Your Park Day Celebrated in 10 parks in Llandybie Community Council
To celebrate ‘Love Your Park Day 2025’, Llandybie Community Council has organised a competition in 4 local primary schools to educate children in the community of the importance of preventing litter and dog fouling in parks and to learn to Love Their Park!
The Community Council is also taking the opportunity to highlight that it is responsible for ten community parks, more than any Community Council in Carmarthenshire. It is a notable fact that in its annual inspection of parks by the County Council only two areas of concern in two parks were identified and then rectified within days of the inspection, all parks are now compliant, an enviable record given the scale of the works that have been carried out in recent years.
Making our parks safe, secure, and clean.
The Community Council conduct weekly visual inspections and monthly technical inspections to ensure all equipment, surfaces, fencing, and gates are compliant and have a no tolerance policy on dog fouling. Its recent measures include working in partnership with the local Police and County Council Environment Enforcement Officers to tackle dog fouling and are the first community council in the UK to use Artificial Intelligence (Ai) contained within software in mobile CCTV Cameras to identify dog owners and breeds.
Continual budget planning for upkeep and repair
The council have an ongoing park repair budget which includes a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with the County Council for Grass Cutting and litter picking and emptying bins in all its parks.
Recent projects to add value to its parks include an Outdoor Gym Area, upgrade to the Multi Games Area, disability ramp and picnic tables at Llandybie which was complimented by a Trampoline Feature, a new outdoor Table Tennis Area and disability access gate at Penygroes Park, new swings at Gors Ddu and Spien Road parks in Penygroes and addition of safety fencing at Saron Park.
The Community Council also awarded £20,000 to Caerbryn Community to replace its children play area and there have been major developments at Banc Y Draenen Park Capel Hendre in conjunction with the County Council which has seen the removal of the old hard standing foundation and the chain fence that once served the now demolished community hall to open the area into a ‘green space’. Further works include meadow planting, an apple orchard and a hedge line to enclose the area as a gem for attracting wildlife and new fauna that will provide a leisure space for residents to enjoy.
New projects always in the pipeline.
The Community Council is now set to complete projects at Saron Park to upgrade facilities in the children’s play area and install a CCTV unit to safeguard assets, keep children safe and deter vandalism. Schemes at Blaenau Park and Penygroes are also being costed.
Schools and community at the heart of our parks
The recent competition has been launched as a school competition where a voucher prize was awarded to pupils with the best poster design and slogan at each school with a cash prize to each school for participating.
Chair of Llandybie Community Council Cllr Julian Tandy; ‘Love your park day 2025 is an ideal opportunity to highlight the importance we put on keeping our parks as a safe environment for our children to play in, free from litter and dog fouling, we have 10 parks which is far more than many community councils so it’s a large part on what we spend our time and the precept on. Educating and prevention is what we have adopted as a strategy, and we are looking to the children in our community to learn for themselves and influence the older generation through friends and family’.
Picture Captions;
Saron School; Chair of Llandybie Community Council Cllr Julian Tandy, Cllr Craig Davies and Cllr Carey Thomas with winners and staff of the poster competition.
Penygroes School; Chair of Llandybie Community Council Cllr Julian Tandy with winners of the poster and slogan competition.
Llandybie School; Clerk of Llandybie Community Council, Dai Nicholas with winners of the poster and slogan competition.
Blaenau School; Cllr Carey Thomas and Dai Nicholas, Clerk, with winners of the poster competition.
