Plans to turn a tennis court in Bath into padel courts have been blocked by the council amid concern the louder noise of the racquets would harm neighbours’ mental health.
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Padel is a sport similar to squash but played with a solid racquet. Originally from Mexico, it has boomed in popularity since the Covid-19 lockdown and is one of the fastest-growing sports — but there is currently nowhere in Bath to play it.
The Lansdown Tennis, Squash, and Croquet Club said that 60 of their members were driving from Bath to Bristol regularly to play the sport.
But a planning application to create two padel courts at the club was refused by Bath and North East Somerset Council last week.
The plans would have seen one of the club’s 11 tennis courts replaced by two padel courts and a mini tennis court. The padel courts would be surrounded by 3m high glazed glass to reduce noise — but would have been just 3.5 metres away from the nearest house.
Representing the neighbours at the council’s planning committee on 31st July, Tessa Hampton, of Context Planning said: “Padel tennis generates a much greater level of noise and disturbance than tennis due to the hard bats and pressurised balls which constantly rebound against the court walls.”
Lansdown Club member John Morgan said: “What you actually hear is gunfire-like noise” and illustrated his point in the meeting by knocking loudly on the table.
Meanwhile, neighbour John Baxter added that padel courts would harm his “right of a peaceful life,” adding: “When we moved here in 2006 the application site was a quiet croquet lawn.”
But representing the club, Tom Rocke told councillors that the club had been there for 140 years, predating many of the surrounding homes.
He said: “There can be few more appropriate places to extend and diversify opportunities for outdoor racquet sports for residents of Bath than in association with an established outdoor racquet sports venue that has benefitted generations of residents in the city and beyond.”
He added that there had been “considerable community support for the proposals”, with 49 people lodging comments with the council in favour of the plans compared to 32 writing in opposition.
Paul Crossley (Southdown, Liberal Democrat) said the Olympics showed how sport was “a universal good thing for human beings” and called on the rest of the committee to approve the plans.
He said: “It’s bringing more sport opportunities to more people or giving people in that club the opportunity to try something different.”
He added: “As someone who lives on a hill, I can say the biggest noise problem I have is lorries going up and down the hill all the time, not someone playing games in their back garden or, in this case, a club.”
But Eleanor Jackson (Westfield, Labour) warned the noise would be “A very erratic staccato type of noise suddenly punctuating your thoughts as you live close to the courts”.
Deborah Collins (Widcombe and Lyncome, Liberal Democrat) warned the expected 1–2 decibel increase would make the noise close to what the World Health Organisation calls “seriously annoying”.
Ms Jackson said: “The court is simply too close to the residences.
“We’ve mentioned the question of mental health. I think it would drive me nutty quite frankly.”
Fiona Gourley (Bathavon South, Liberal Democrat) said: “I have seen padel tennis in action. It didn’t strike me as being particularly more noisy than tennis.”
But she added that 60 people being able to play at Lansdown instead of Bristol would mean more traffic. She said: “It’s adding to the noise in what is otherwise a very tranquil area.”
The majority of the committee voted to refuse planning permission for the padel courts.
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
