It was widely reported this week that the city of Bath has become the latest battleground in the British padel industry’s struggle against sceptical local councils and hostile NIMBYs.
But, as ever when it comes to the mainstream media’s somewhat warped coverage of our sport, it’s worth delving a little deeper.
“The city waging a war against padel” screamed the headline in the Daily Mail, who reported that Bath and North East Somerset Council had “banned” the sport from the city — a claim repeated unquestioningly across social media.
In the articles, there was a full house on the now-familiar bingo card of concerns from local residents: ‘gunshots’, ‘noisy’, ‘seriously annoying’ and — a new one — ‘Chinese water torture’ (This on top of The Times’ extraordinary recent report that Hampshire villagers were worried padel would give them diabetes).
It is indeed true that Bath council recently knocked back plans for four courts at Odd Down Sports Ground, on top of another rejected application last year to build two courts at Lansdown Tennis Club.
But two rejected applications does not constitute a “ban” — and a prominent padel operator who is currently in the process of one planning application to build padel facilities in Bath, with another in the pipeline — remains undeterred.
Speaking to The Padel Paper at the UK Padel Convention in Gloucester on Wednesday, Smash Padel CEO Rupert Taylor said: “In our view, it is unequivocally incorrect to say there is a ban on padel in Bath. It’s just hard!
“Bath is, by any measure, a very challenging location. It’s an extremely beautiful city in an area of outstanding natural beauty surrounded by green belt land. A huge proportion of it is also ruled out because it’s too steep, so you’re 40-love down before you’ve even started.
“But, as any operator will tell you, the process requires capital and patience, and patience is the most important of those two factors.”
Taylor, who lives in Bath himself, is lodging planning applications for Smash Padel on two sites in the city, one at a disused railway station and another in an independent school.
He stated: “You’ve got to find a location where you’re not too close to residences, not on a hill, can manage that openness test on green belt land and AONB and make sure you’re not falling foul of any ecology issues. That cuts your list of potential sites significantly.
“You’ve got to really plan your site and do lots and lots of surveys. Those surveys interact in complicated ways, such that you’ve got to keep iterating the plan based on the new information you learn along the way. You’ve got to get the surveyors to talk to each other, which can be harder than it sounds. The plan has to be fluid.”
As a result of the lack of official guidelines when it comes to assessing padel planning applications, there are huge inconsistencies in how local authorities make their judgements. Evidence suggests that Bath and North Somerset Council has applied an arbitrary 30-metre minimum distance between courts and the nearest residences.
“We respect that,” said Taylor. “Noise is a non-negotiable and it’s clear in Bath that the council are going to stick to that measurement.
“We also know that in AONB and green belt you need to respect the openness of the environment and align with the existing aesthetics and ambiance, as well as the ecology.
“One of the reasons why Bath is such a wonderful place is because it’s a city in an extremely rural location. Light spill after dark will be a big issue, so we have taken steps to mitigate all these factors.”
Smash Padel have put significant resources into the planning process for both potential Bath sites. As Taylor states: “We wouldn’t have made this investment if we didn’t think they were viable.”
He added: “Planning departments all have their idiosyncracies and differences; some things will be accepted in one place and not the next. I see it as quite a fun challenge. Bath is definitely a challenge, but it’s solvable.
“Padel brings extraordinary benefits. It’s not just a sport for sporty people, it’s a sport for everyone. The benefits it can bring are colossal. That’s why it’s so disappointing that some news outlets choose to latch on to the very few negative aspects – especially as, in this case, what they write is often misleading and untrue.”
Read more on padel, noise complaints and the planning permission maze:
- Five top tips for securing planning permission for padel courts
- New research creates model for measuring padel noise
- How to solve padel’s noise problem? We get an expert’s view
- How the British media has seized upon padel’s noise issue
Main pic: Photo by Martina Jorden on Unsplash
