Norwich Parks Tennis

Norwich Parks Tennis brings the city's public courts together under one affordable scheme. Working with Norwich City Council and the LTA, National Tennis delivers the coaching, holiday camps and community tennis across seven parks, where players book online and let themselves in through smart-access gates.

Since 2021 the partnership has rebuilt tired courts, added floodlights and brought closed grass courts back into use as year-round hard courts. National Tennis has since added four padel courts at Eaton Park, right next to the tennis.

Many of Norwich's park courts were showing their age, and the grass courts at Heigham Park had been closed since 2017.

The council wanted tennis to stay affordable for every household while bringing in enough through low-cost memberships to pay for the courts' upkeep for years to come.

• One scheme, one membership. A low-cost household membership covers a single park or every Norwich Parks Tennis site, with pay and play for everyone else.
• Book online, walk straight in. Courts are booked online, with smart-access gates and automatic floodlights at the lit sites.
• Coaching and community tennis. National Tennis runs Youth and adult coaching, holiday camps, free weekly park tennis sessions and a Local Tennis League.
• New and rebuilt courts. Lakenham, Heigham Park, Harford Park and Alderman Walker Park have been rebuilt or refurbished with council, community infrastructure levy, Section 106, UK Government and LTA Tennis Foundation funding.
• Padel next door. National Tennis built Eaton Park Padel, four floodlit panoramic courts beside the Eaton Park tennis courts.

In their first month the new Heigham Park courts were booked for 188 hours per court, ahead of Eaton Park's 178, and the council reported less antisocial behaviour at Lakenham once its new courts opened.

The Greater Norwich Growth Board points to Norwich Parks Tennis as a national example of best practice in park tennis.