Last updated October 2026
Middlesex buyers search by the old county name, but planning, parking and park courts are all run by the London borough you are in, such as Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow or Barnet, or by Spelthorne Borough Council in Surrey for Staines and Ashford. For play areas, wetpour typically costs about £40 to £140 per m2 before VAT. Courts and MUGAs are priced from survey against the benchmarks on our costs page . Send photos and a plan and Alex Winser arranges a visit.
Who do we ask about planning in Middlesex?
Your borough, or Spelthorne if you are in Staines-upon-Thames, Ashford, Sunbury or Shepperton. There is no Middlesex council, so a school in Southall and one in Sunbury apply to different authorities with different local plans. Fencing and floodlights are the parts most likely to need consent; if a resurface changes the court’s surface or colour, the LTA’s planning note says that needs permission too.
Is our playing field in the Green Belt?
On the fringe it may well be. Barnet had 2,390 hectares of Green Belt in March 2025, and was the only council in England whose Green Belt grew in that year, by 10 hectares. National policy lets outdoor sport facilities stay in the Green Belt if they keep it open, so a school or club on that edge should expect questions about new high fencing or lighting columns rather than about the surface. The planning guide for courts and pitches sets out the test.
Could Hillingdon’s Green Belt rules change?
Possibly, so check before you design. Hillingdon Council reported in July 2026 that the draft new London Plan proposes 24,030 homes in the borough over ten years, with 61% of them on green spaces, and the council is opposing it. Until that plan is settled, a club or school with land on the edge of Uxbridge, Ruislip or West Drayton should ask the council’s planners where things stand before paying for floodlight design.
What did Ealing pay to bring its park courts back?
£323,772 for seven courts across six sites, due to be ready by summer 2023. £253,772 came from the Government and LTA Tennis Foundation and £70,000 from Ealing Council, which means the council found a little over a fifth of the cost. A parish, school or housing provider with its own courts can use that split as a guide when building a funding bid around the tennis court construction page’s figures.
Do Middlesex courts need gate entry?
If you want them booked and paid for, yes. In Harrow, where the LTA Tennis Foundation has put over £500,000 into local courts, players book online or by scanning a QR code on the gate, then receive a gate code; a standard booking costs £6.50 an hour and the reduced rate £4. A club or school adding a court that will be hired out should include the gate, its power supply and the booking system in the same quote, because retrofitting a gate later means lifting fence panels.
| Middlesex job | Typical price, ex VAT | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Wetpour play area | about £40 to £140 per m2 | Supplier price list, 2026 |
| MUGA resurface | about £36 per m2 | Three council quotes, 2025 |
| Court moss treatment, 3 courts | £450 | Epsom council quote, 2025 |
Sources
- MHCLG, local authority Green Belt statistics 2024 to 2025, Oct 2025
- Hillingdon Council, draft London Plan and the borough’s Green Belt, July 2026
- Ealing News, Ealing’s park tennis courts to be refurbished, Mar 2023
- Harrow Council, tennis courts, read Oct 2026
- Wickham Parish Council, MUGA resurfacing and relining quotes, Feb 2025
- Epsom and Ewell Borough Council, tennis review addendum, 2025
How it works
- 01Send a plan and photosThe site, the surface and the date it must reopen.
- 02We check the groundLevels and where the water drains.
- 03Written quoteBuilt around your reopening date.
Which surface suits a Middlesex school or estate play area?
For a busy primary yard in Hounslow or Hayes, wetpour under the frames with painted games on the remaining tarmac is the hard-wearing choice. On a housing estate green, shock-padded artificial grass or bonded rubber mulch keeps the space looking soft. Each is laid to the fall height of the equipment, and the test result goes into your handover file.
Can a MUGA be added to an old tarmac yard here?
Often, if the base is sound and drains. Reusing it keeps the job shorter and the price lower, and the MUGA page covers sizes, fencing and lighting. In a Green Belt school, put lights in the planning question early.
Who handles the job?
Alex Winser is your contact from the first call to sign-off. He books the survey, agrees access and parking with the school or borough, and checks the finished surface before handover. The surfacing teams lay and test it, and any fencing or gate trades come under the same contract. We arrange a vetted local surfacing contractor for Middlesex jobs. We confirm who within 2 working days, or tell you if we can’t.