A TENNIS club will be demolished to make way for 50 retirement flats in Holcombe Brook after planners gave plans the go-ahead.

Councillors at the planning meeting in Bury granted permission for developers McCarthy and Stone to begin work on the apartments in Longsight Road.

Approval was initially granted by Bury Council in October 2011 on the condition the work would only start once the tennis club had relocated, to prevent any sporting facilities being lost.

At the meeting, it was confirmed Holcombe Tennis Club’s new £1.5 million home in Hazel Hall Lane is now nearing completion.

After the meeting, club secretary Tony Lawson said that the work is set to be finished in August.

He said: “I am delighted that it has been approved. The courts are 99 per cent done, and we are about to put the roof on the clubhouse.”

Cash from the sale of the former Longsight Road base has been used to fund the new development, which will include eight tennis courts, six of which will be floodlit, a clubhouse, mini-tennis area and practice wall.

The club, which was formed in 1926, went through 12 years of planning and legal issues before it was finally given the green light in October 2011.

A statement on the McCarthy and Stone website confirmed construction was due to start in September, with the first residents to move in from November next year.

Holcombe Tennis Club’s old site will become housing.