Windsor Lawn Tennis Club, in Penarth, has been granted planning permission by the Vale council to create Wales' first ever padel tennis court.

The application was submitted for the creation of the court to allow the public and club members to play padel tennis.

Game4Padel, who have applied for permission to create the court, work with a wide variety of British sports venues (local authorities, tennis and multi sports clubs and universities) to finance, install, maintain and operate padel courts but also to create bespoke playing programmes and support networks to ensure that success at grassroots level is maximised.

The new court will open from 8:00 am till 10:00 pm every day.

The planning authority received 10 letters of representation in which members of the public expressed concern over:

· Noise

· Light pollution (from the floodlights);

· Additional on-street parking;

· Additional traffic;

· Antisocial behaviour;

· Removal of trees.

However, planning officers determined that the development proposal would allow an existing leisure facility to provide an additional service and approved the plans.

The final decision report suggested that the visual impact would not be significant as the plans would join an established group of tennis courts, all of which are already visible from Larkwood Avenue.

Several trees (none of which were protected) have already been removed from the site but the applicant confirmed that the proposal would not affect the large roadside tree.

Regarding the impact on neighbours the report states that

the distance of the court from residential houses means it would not bring about a harmful loss of privacy or visual amenity.

Several objectors also expressed concern over light pollution, noise and antisocial behaviour but the planning authority concluded the changes to these alongside the tennis courts would be negligible.

Currently the land, which would be used for the new court, has been left as open grass space.

What is Padel Tennis?

• Padel Tennis is a racket sport that combines elements of tennis, squash and badminton. It is a doubles only sport.

• The sport is played by over 12 million people around the world.

• A padel court is smaller than a tennis court (10m x 20m) and is surrounded by glass walls and steel fence.

• The similarities to tennis are in the presence of a net, the scoring system and the balls (slightly softer).

• The main difference from tennis is that the ball can be played off the walls, in a similar way to squash.

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