MUNICIPAL tennis courts that have been allowed to fall derelict in Marlborough are at the centre of a row between town councillors.

At Monday's meeting of the recreation committee, Coun Stewart Dobson criticised the Mayor Margaret Boulton for holding informal talks last week about the tennis courts at the Salisbury Road Recreation Ground.

Coun Boulton invited Marlborough Tennis Club, the Elcot Lane Pavilion Trust and a representative of the St Margarets Mead residents to discuss ideas for the future of the tennis courts.

It was revealed at that meeting that the tennis club might be interested in building four hard courts on the Elcot Lane playing fields and sharing the pavilion on which refurbishment work started this week.

Coun Dobson was concerned that he had not been invited to the informal talks and he claimed the meeting had not been representative.

Coun Boulton said the meeting was purely explorative.

"If some of the ideas that were discussed were to go ahead we would have a win-win situation with tennis all the year round," she added.

Coun Ian Perryman congratulated the mayor on starting talks but cautioned against spending money on the recreation ground courts because they had never been well used.

The committee agreed to seek estimates for the refurbishment of the courts with a supplementary estimate for making them good as a hard play area.