LETTER: Article in no way answered why
How sad. Brighton Tennis Club cannot possibly say they are like a "family" when they treat pensioners like this.
EDITOR – I was extremely upset when reading your article on Pensioners dismayed as tennis club increases fees, dated Friday, 25 June.
The article was relating to fee increases of more than 100 percent for the pensioners. The article published in no way answered as to why the fees were increased so much for the pensioners.
Brighton Tennis Club after stating how much they do for the community should be ashamed of how they have treated such decent long-standing committed pensioners of the Bluff community.
Is it only the youth that the tennis club supports? It seems the pensioners were offering to pay R80 and play only once a week, but the club rejected the offer.
The tennis courts now stand empty on a Monday and Friday morning, when they could be utilised. How sad. Brighton Tennis Club cannot possibly say they are like a “family” when they treat pensioners like this.
J. LUCEY
The tennis club responds:
As stated previously, we had a special agreement with a few senior women that wanted to play at Brighton Tennis Club when the Fynnlands Tennis Club closed down.
There are now two remaining senior women that continue to play. We did not increase (nor had any intention to increase) the fees for these two women.
In fact, the fees stayed the same at R50 per month which we have kept the same since inception, even though our members’ fees increase each year.
We continue to honour this agreement with the two senior women. However, the “new players” that the senior women recruited into their social group, without the club’s permission, were requesting to review their monthly fees.
We have many pensioners in our club that are fully paying members, and accommodating these “new players” is unfair. The cost of running any club is tremendous and the only way we will survive is with full paying members which we have been doing successfully for all these years.
Our paying members support the club’s continued upkeep that includes maintenance of club-house and courts, water and electricity, and upkeep of the grounds.
Sadly, the Brighton Tennis Club continues to be portrayed in poor light without all the necessary facts at hand.
BRIGHTON TENNIS CLUB
