Dodder Valley Park tennis and basketball courts for upgrade

UPGRADE works on the tennis and basketball courts in Dodder Valley Park in Tallaght are due to commence this week.

The upgrade works will provide two full-size basketball courts to International Basketball Federation standards and three tennis courts to International Tennis Federation standards.

At present the park contains five tennis courts and one basketball court, none of which meet the regulation size denoted in International Federation standards.

The works by South Dublin County Council’s public realm section will take approximately three to four weeks to be complete, according to the local authority.

The upgrade work will include regulating and overlaying of the existing playing surfaces, new court lining, new posts and nets on the tennis courts, and new frames and hoops on the basketball courts.

The works have, in part, been informed by a survey carried out by the council in 2020, where they found that respondents’ desire to play basketball was above all other sports available in the park.

“The addition of a second basketball court at Old Bawn will help in some way to respond to this demand,” stated the council, in an update issued to local Independent councillor Alan Edge.

The tennis courts, which offer one of the few free spaces to play tennis in Tallaght and its environs, have been in the park since its early development, but they have fallen into disrepair in recent years.

In a report in The Echo in 2019, a council spokesperson admitted that the tennis courts were “many years old and in poor condition”.

The new works for the courts are included in the Public Realm Improvement Works Programme for this year, while additional funding has also been obtained through an application for Sports Capital funding.