Padel and pickleball court plans approved for Peterborough

Alan Jordan who runs Padel Peterborough has permission to convert four unused tennis courts at Powerleague, next to Stanground Academy, into five new padel courts and three smaller pickleball courts with the associated fencing.

When built, the padel courts will be the first of their kind in the city. Although there are currently two other active planning applications for padel courts in and around Peterborough which have not yet been decided on.

According Mr Jordan's plans, the existing club house would provide toilets and welfare facilities. Players would also arrive dressed to play, meaning no changing facilities would be required.

His application stated: "The existing site is vacant and dilapidated and not used to its full potential as tennis courts or any sports facility. It requires a new surface and upgrades to make it a playable surface."

The use of the courts will be restricted to between 8am and 8pm every day of the week.

Padel combines elements of tennis and squash, and is typically played in doubles on an enclosed court around 25 per cent smaller than a tennis court.

It has the same scoring system as tennis, but the courts have walls, so shots can be played off them.

Pickleball uses a smaller court, a perforated plastic ball, and paddles making it popular with a wider age range.

More than 400,000 adults and juniors in Great Britain played padel at least once in 2024.

Mr Jordan believes the social side to padel is what makes it so popular.

He said: “Many more people can learn about the game in a shorter period of time. The laborious thing of picking up a tennis ball is a lot more challenging than that of padel.

“It is a skilled game, as any racket sport, but more people are willing to participate because they don’t have to spend as much time trying to perfect the game in order to play at a competitive level.

“People don’t have to spend hours and hours having private tennis lessons in order to become a better player.”

The new courts in Stanground must be built within three years.

Supporting the application, Clare Howe of Sport England wrote: "The proposal would result in pickle courts and padel courts which comply with the LTA’s sport design guidance and would be of a high quality. Furthermore, the LTA supports the proposal."

She added: "Sport England are of the view that the proposal for an outdoor facility for sport, would be of sufficient benefit to the development of sport as to outweigh the loss of the tennis courts."