Walsall Tennis Club homes plan ditched

An application for the development on Cricket Close - which came after the tennis club was forced to leave its base of more than a century - has been withdrawn.

The town's main tennis club, which has been running since 1912 and has around 250 members, moved from its Birmingham Road base last September after its lease ran out and the site was earmarked for homes.

The decision has led to confusion about the future of the site and whether the applicant Cricket Close LLP, which owns the site, will return with another bid for housing.

It has raised the possibility that Walsall Tennis Club, which has had to stage games at Tipton Sports Academy since leaving its previous base, could return to Cricket Close. The club is continuing to seek a permanent home.

But chairman Brian McBride believes a fairytale return appears unlikely at the moment.

He said: "It would be a nice thought but I suspect any decision that gets made will ultimately be from a financial perspective.

"Had they felt there was a prospect of making it a financially-viable option last September they would have suggested we stay for the foreseeable future. The fact was they gave us notice to leave the site.

"It would be nice to get the phonecall to say they have withdrawn the application, reconsidered our options and one of those is the tennis club returning back to the site but there is no indication at this stage that is what they want to happen.

"They have got a piece of real estate which is valuable in terms of potential looking to maximise that value."

Mr McBride said he expects a fresh application for housing and added: "I think they may want to revise the type of housing they want to put on the site."