A pickleball court in Colchester needs to be removed within 30 days.
Earlier this week, Essex council asked residents to stop using the court and remove it.
Mayor Sherry Bondy says some residents recently decided to build their own pickleball court on Lake Crest Beach Road.
She says the court is beautiful but it's on town property and the residents did not get permission from the town to build it.
"Some residents on one of our beach roads took it upon themselves to build one and I do admit it's beautiful, it looks great but from a town point of view, they didn't seek permission, it's located in an area that we want to expand our infrastructure," she says. "From a liability perspective, town council we had a legal opinion, we just can't allow residents to build infrastructure on town property without the proper permission and without consent, maybe we would have allowed it but in a different area. "So unfortunately, we had to ask them to not use it and to remove it within 30 days."
Bondy says residents are disappointed.
"It was built really well, it looked great but from a legal prospective, I think they understood that we really didn't have a choice," says Bondy. "Can you imagine if residents throughout the municipality started building and putting infrastructure on town property, that's just something we can't allow."
She says right now the town can't put pickleball courts in Colchester.
Bondy is hoping to discuss pickleball courts in the future with the residents.