ANDY Murray has urged the authorities in Scotland to do more to capitalise on his family's success and grant approval to his mum Judy's proposed tennis academy at the Park of Keir near Dunblane. The current World No 1 in singles, whose brother Jamie was confirmed yesterday as part of the year-end No 1 pairing in doubles, has taken a keen interest in the £70m plan, even attending one of the open meetings as part of the public enquiry into the scheme, which will also include golf facilities and a Murray museum.
Scottish Government ministers are expected to give their final answer on the plans - which were rejected last year by councillors amid concerns from local residents over its use of Green Belt land - in the next few weeks and the 29-year-old feels it would be a shame if the bid falls by the wayside. While the scheme has the support of both the Lawn Tennis Association and Tennis Scotland, further work in general is required to bolster the tennis infrastructure north of the border and construct more indoor courts. Tennis Scotland, which has an annual budget of approximately £1.7m, is currently without a Chief Executive following the resignation of David Marshall after this year's Wimbledon.
"For my mum, obviously it's something she's been working on for a very, very long time," said Andy. "I hope for her that it goes ahead. When I speak to her about it, she so, so wants it to happen. It's not like she's going to keep going after this. If it doesn't happen now, this will probably be the last chance. I know she's doing it only for the right reasons. If it doesn't happen, it would be a shame. The decision is in the next few weeks really. So we'll find out soon.
"Obviously I would be disappointed if nothing changed," he added. "I'm interested in it, for sure. There's not loads I can do about it just now whilst I'm playing. But obviously my mum's heavily involved in tennis not just in Scotland, but in the whole of the UK. She's pretty aware of everything that's going on. I just hope that when I finish, it's better than it was when I started. Whether that's the case now or not, I don't really know."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel