Judy Murray expects ground to be broken on her controversial Park of Keir sports development by the spring of next year and completed two years later.

After years of campaigning to create a facility close to the home in which she brought up two world No.1 and Grand Slam winning tennis players, Murray believes the end of the protracted process is in sight with her team close to completing detailed discussions with the local authority on what is known as Section 75 agreement that will allow work to get underway.

“We’re finalising the design and the business plan,” she said.

“We have to get a Section 75 from Stirling Council and we’ve got to nail down every single thing that’s being asked of us and we’re very close now. The plan would be to start building next year, probably after Easter to be ready to open in the spring of 2021.”

Murray spoke to The Herald while helping with the launch of a new facility in the Algarve that has the potential to provide something of a template for what she is hoping to do closer to home.

"The Campus" is a multi-sports complex within the Quinta do Lago resort which has long been famous as a high class golf venue, but in keeping with Murray’s view of what is required to make tennis more accessible, its owners have recognised the need to broaden its appeal in response to changing markets and Murray – who is setting up a coaching team and will run regular camps there – sees clear similarities in the two projects.

“[In Scotland] We need a roof on it for sure, but I also like the fact that this is not just about the tennis, because there's also obviously the golf here, but they wanted to expand and they’ve done what is almost a no expense campus for football, for tennis and for golf,” she explained.

“It is that thing that I know, from all the years that I’ve been trying to find a way to build a facility in Scotland from which I could operate that tennis can’t stand on its own unless it’s incredibly expensive. So you have to build other things around it and for me, with what we’re doing at Park of Keir, it’ll be a mix of sport and leisure. The leisure elements can make the money that will allow us to make the sports, the golf and the tennis, affordable. It’s a different feel to it.”

While there has been some local opposition to the Park of Keir plan, which initially contributed to its rejection before a Scottish Government planning inquiry overturned that decision, Murray believes more hearts and minds will be won once the detailed plans are available for all to see.

“Once we’ve finalised the design we’ll have something to show people and I do think that when people can see it they’ll just go ‘Wow, imagine having that in your back yard,’” she said.

“I think it’s like a lot of things that those who are against it make a lot of noise and the people who are for it don’t say anything.

“At the inquiry there were very small numbers there on all the days it was on, but you’re never going to convert everybody.”

Still very much a local, however, she remains keen to address any remaining concerns about the nature of the venture and the impact on the local scenery and is eager to ensure that the outcome allows the maximum number of people to make better use of an area that is bordered by woodland.

“We’ve set the whole thing up as a charitable trust. It isn’t a commercial venture for anyone. It’s very much that any profits that are generated in time are reinvested in the facility and it is a sport and leisure facility for the immediate catchment around the area,” Murray pointed out.

“So in terms of what it will offer, I just wish there had been things like that when my kids were small, because I was constantly in the car, whether it was going to mini rugby or the swimming pool. Nothing was in Dunblane apart from the tennis club and now we will have a number of sports in one place, where the whole family can come and play and it will be pay and play, it’s not going to be a membership club. We’re going to make it as affordable as we possibly can by spreading the costs around the facility.

“We’re building in the fields. We’re not disrupting the woods in any way at all. If anything it will open up the Park of Keir to many more people because at the moment hardly anybody walks on it.”