THE Wiltshire Lawn Tennis Association Community Venue of the Year award has gone to the revamped tennis courts at Trowbridge Park just six months after they opened.

After not being touched since the 1950's, the courts got a much needed £65,000 makeover earlier this year, thanks to grants from the Trowbridge Area Board and the LTA, before they were unveiled in July.

Since then, Active Trowbridge's tennis coaches have seen a sharp rise in the number of people making the most of the courts, which cost £5 to use for 90 minutes or £30 a year per household.

And in not much time at all, the progress that was being made there did not go unnoticed, so much so that it won the county-wide award and has now been put forward to the South West Regional round.

"It is brilliant that we have received this award. It shows that all the hard work that went into setting the courts up and the work we have done in the months afterwards, is making a difference and is being recognised," said Active Trowbridge coach Sam Smith.

"Since then we have taken part in the free Great British Tennis weekend, we have our five to 12-year-old hotshots tennis programme and more and more people are signing up.

"We have a really good online booking system where you get given a code before you play so the courts stay shut when they are not being used, which keeps them in good condition.

"The feedback we have received has been fantastic. All of this is part of the reason why we got this award and if we got one for the region, that would be fantastic."

Floodlights will be added to the state-of-the-art courts in the next few months and fellow coach Matt Morris hopes more tournaments and fun games can take place there in 2018.

"It is an exciting time to be involved with this. We just want to get as many people out there playing tennis and so far it has been a very good start," he said.

"We have a great relationship with the LTA and hopefully we can build on this and put on more activities for those who get involved."