Members of an 80-year-old tennis club claim it may be forced to fold when its courts are swallowed up by a controversial new health centre planned for Poulton.

Both the town's GP surgeries are set to be relocated to a modern building on the site of St Chad's church hall and St Chad’s Tennis Club near to Vicarage Park.

The plans, which also include a cafe, community police office and park ranger station have been the subject of hundreds of submissions to the council from local residents and businesses.

Despite developers Rushcliffe Healthcare, acting for North Lancs Primary Care Trust, offering to build similar facilities, St Chad’s Tennis Club secretary Gemma Jackson believes the club could fold.

She said: “We had our finals day on Saturday in glorious weather and it was a fantastic day.

“However, I fear it could be our last such event. We are a thriving club of around 90 members of all ages and we concentrate a lot on our juniors.

“The alternative site put forward by Rushcliffe is just not acceptable for a number of reasons.”

The plans Rushcliffe have put forward for relocating the club would see three courts built and a multi-use games area built on the playing field of St Chad’s Primary School.

Mrs Jackson added: “There are no parking facilities and I have yet to see evidence of a maintenance and management plan for the area.

“We would also have limited access to the courts as they would be shared with the school.”

Harry Ashworth, managing director of Rushcliffe Healthcare said that he was always open to dialogue with club representatives and was trying to provide an alternative site for the club which would suit their needs.

He said: “We are bound by county council rules which prevent us from creating new parking spaces apart from three for the disabled. However the Teanlowe centre is close by with plenty of parking.

“We have included a new pavilion in the plans and once the relocation has been agreed we expect maintenance and management to operate in a similar way to the present club.”

Mr Ashworth added that he expected the planning application to be heard in late October or November and that if approved they expected to start work on the health centre early in the new year.