At the May 30 meeting, Monash Council signalled its intention to sell the land at 14-16 Atkinson Street, Chadstone.

This land and the 3 tennis courts on it were the home of North Oakleigh Tennis Club (NOTC) since 1976 before NOTC merged with Oakleigh Tennis Club (OTC) in 2019, when the clubs’ combined membership was 116.

With the combined OTC-NOTC’s membership now at 650, and demand for our 8 courts at an all-time high, the committee wishes to oppose this sale, instead proposing that the courts be refurbished with the same artificial grass surface and Book-A-Court system that is currently in use at Caloola Reserve.

OTC is prepared to contribute $100,000 towards this refurbishment, which is expected to cost around $200,000.

If our proposal is approved, the extra 3 courts would help us to better accommodate the many demands for the use our courts (competition tennis, coaching, social tennis, casual court hire).

We need as many members (and others) as possible to submit an email which objects to the sale and supports our proposal by the July 17 council deadline.

It is easy to do in 4 simple steps:

STEP 1.    Create an email to go to mail@monash.vic.gov.au.  

Please also add president@oakleightennisclub.com.au to the Cc, which will allow us to see how many emails are submitted.

STEP 2.    Place F19-10119.011 - OBJECTION TO: Intention To Sell Land: 14-16 Atkinson Street, Chadstone in the Subject of the email. 

STEP 3.   Copy the below text into the body of the email:

Attn:        Director City Development, Monash City Council

I wish to object to Monash Council’s plan to sell the land situated at 14-16 Atkinson Street, Chadstone, being lots 124-127 (inclusive) on Plan of Subdivision LP8883 and comprised in certificates of titles volume 5465 folio 880, volume 4995 folio 905, volume 6331 folio 163 and volume 7508 folio 033 (‘Land’), by an expression of interest process (‘Proposal’).

Instead, I urge Monash Council to support the proposal put forward by Oakleigh Tennis Club (OTC) to reinstate the courts with a new artificial grass surface and Book-A-Court system (the same as is currently in use at OTC’s Caloola Reserve site).

My reasons for supporting OTC’s proposal are as follows:

• 14-16 Atkinson Street was the home of North Oakleigh Tennis Club (NOTC) from 1976 to 2019.
• Prior to merging and relocating to Caloola Reserve in 2019, NOTC (3) and OTC (7) had a total of 10 courts and a combined membership 116.
• OTC’s membership has since grown to 650, but Caloola Reserve only has 8 courts.
• The club has done an outstanding job of promoting tennis in the local area, as the following statistics show.

  >>>   650             Members as of June 30, 2023.

  >>>   469             Non-members also booked a court during 2022-23.

  >>>   11808      Individual court bookings during 2022-23.

  >>>    22451         Total court hours booked during 2022-23.

 >>>    7.68            Average booked hours per day for each court during 2022-23.

• The club does its best to ensure as many courts are available for competition tennis, coaching, organized social tennis and casual bookings by both members and non-members, but with only 8 courts and an ever-increasing demand, this is becoming more difficult all the time, especially on weekends when both competition tennis and social tennis are very popular.
• OTC has recently been forced to start hiring outside courts to satisfy weekend demand.
• The refurbishment of the 3 courts at 14-16 Atkinson Street would greatly assist in meeting this demand.
• OTC has had a preliminary cost estimate of under $200,000 for the refurbishment and conversion of the 3 former NOTC courts at 14-16 Atkinson Street to the same artificial grass that is in use at Caloola Reserve.
• The club is in a sound financial position, and is both willing and able to offer $100,000 toward the redevelopment of these courts.
• Monash Council’s 2019 Tennis Discussion Paper noted that the Chadstone, Ashwood and Burwood areas had by far the lowest court to population ratio (1:4039) in the entire Monash LGA, with only 1 club (5 courts) and 20,195 people.  Refurbishment of these 3 courts will help redress that deficiency.
• To put the refurbishment cost into perspective, these 3 courts can again become available for tennis usage for much less than 1% of the cost of the 18 courts at the new Monash Tennis Centre (which is over 9 kilometres away, so is not really “local” for the residents of Chadstone, Ashwood, Burwood or even Oakleigh).
• These courts are compliant with Monash Council’s size and spacing requirements, and the addition of an extra 3 courts to OTC’s existing 8 courts at Caloola Reserve will allow the club to expand and diversify its tennis offerings even more than it is currently able to do.
• This proposal will save these courts for the enjoyment of future generations of tennis players.

STEP 4   Add your name at the end of the email.

STEP 5.  Send the email.

If you wish to add further comments or make changes to the body of the email, please feel free to do so, but do not change the email Address, the email Subject, or the Attn:, or the email will not be accepted by council.

A copy of your email will also be sent to president@oakleightennisclub.com.au, so we can keep a count of how many submissions have been sent to council.

More details about our proposal can be seen by clicking on the link to the following document:

COURT REFURBISHMENT PROPOSAL.pdf

More details about council’s intentions can be seen at:

https://www.monash.vic.gov.au/About-Us/Public-Notices/Intention-To-Sell-Land-14-16-Atkinson-Street-Chadstone

Thank you for your support.