News from Westminster Labour

Westminster Conservatives accused of wrecking tennis coaches’ livelihoods

Westminster Conservatives have been accused of wrecking the livelihoods of three long-standing tennis coaches who have been forced off the Paddington Rec tennis courts by the Council through massive increases in rental charges. Labour Councillors say that the three tennis coaches have had their businesses put in danger by the Council’s damaging and thoughtless actions. Labour say that the massive rent increases were designed to force the tennis coaches off the courts at Paddington Rec so that the Council could take all the tennis coaching income for itself.

The three tennis coaches have run a Tennis charity day for the past four years raising funds for the Dr David Cummingham Research Fund at the Royal Marsden Hospital (raising nearly £20,000 in four years), without help from the Council or Cannon’s Group.

At the last Council meeting, Labour Councillors handed in a 300 name petition from angry residents and tennis court users protesting at the way in which the three tennis coaches have been treated.

Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of the Labour Group, said:

“The way in which these three long-standing tennis coaches have been treated is an absolute disgrace. The Council knows that the coaches have the support of all those who they have taught and yet the Council continues to ignore what these satisfied customers say. In my experience, I have never seen such an injustice. The coaches have had their business and livelihoods destroyed by a Council that does not even have the decency to tell the truth. At the end of the day, it is all about money and the Council wants all the tennis coaching income for itself, regardless of the way in which this will result in financial ruin for the three tennis coaches.

“This cannot be fair or legal and it is certainly ironic that in the week that the Conservatives launched their economic recovery programme they have created such economic misery for these three hardworking tennis coaches.

“I urge the Council to think again and to review this crazy decision which has caused so much misery to the three tennis coaches and the hundereds of local residents who now cannot get tennis coaching from the people they trust most and whose help they really value.”

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