THE upgrading of 11 tennis courts in four council-owned parks has been completed.

The £58,860 refurbishment is aimed at increasing participation in the sport despite the introduction of a small charge for using them.

The courts are at Burnley's Scott Park, Ightenhill Park and Queen’s Park and Padiham's Park Road Memorial Park.

The improvement work has been completed and the scheme and new charges are set to come into operation from May 30

The investment by Burnley Council, the UK Government and the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) Tennis Foundation follows successful schemes elsewhere in the UK.

The local authority and Burnley Tennis Club will work with the LTA to deliver coaching across the park sites.

This will include weekly organised free tennis sessions for all ages, playing levels and experience with equipment provided.

Under scheme the courts will be secured using a gate access and pin code system and will need to be pre-booked via an online system at a charge of £3 an hour for most sessions.

But there will also be regular free ones.

A season ticket will cost £35 and cover up to five people.

Money raised from the new fees will be set aside for future repair, improvement and maintenance of the courts

The scheme will be officially launched at Scott Park on Sunday June 18 with Burnley Tennis Club providing fun taster sessions.

Cllr John Harbour, Burnley council’s green spaces boss, said: “We’re aware that introducing a small charge could be prohibitive to some but we will continue to offer free sessions at certain times and we have kept any charge to a minimum.

"By introducing a booking system people can be assured that when they turn up to play a court will be available to them which will encourage them to use the facilities.

“With Wimbledon just around the corner there will be an upsurge in interest in tennis and we want to build on that throughout the year by encouraging people of all ages to pick up a racket and have a go.”