Sir - In the wake of the recent Wimbledon final we took our two sons to Bury Knowle Park in Headington to relive the exploits of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer on the council's tennis courts.

I was shocked to find that charges have risen dramatically this year with adults now charged £3 per hour and U17s £1.25, which resulted in our doubles match of two adults and two children costing £8.50 an hour.

Having researched this a bit, I find Oxford City Council's prices have risen over 20 per cent since 2007 and 400 per cent since 2003, when a court cost £3 an hour irrespective of how many players there were. More worrying is the fact that none of the money collected from the courts is reinvested in tennis; or sport of any kind.

It actually ends up in the council's central accounts, with officers set income targets for each of the sports provided, which means that as a council taxpayer what I'm actually paying is a local tennis tax. And the icing on the cake was the fact that on completion of our hour's play we were asked to leave the court which then remained empty.

Having sensed an injustice, I then visited Cowley Marsh to find that, where there were once six tennis courts, two have been converted to a basket ball/multi sports area that is free to use.

So why does the council charge for tennis at all?

All the other activities within a park are free, children don't pay to use the playgrounds, no one pays to walk their dog, enjoy the wonderful floral displays or kick a ball around on the grass.

All of these must incur maintenance costs, probably above those of a piece of tarmac and a few nets and yet we have to pay substantial and increasing sums to play tennis.

Steve Weitzel, Headington