Peterborough padel boom set to reach 12 courts this summer

Peterborough’s padel count is set to rise to 12 courts by the end of the summer, and the clearest sign of how far the sport has spread is the age spread on court, from juniors to an 86-year-old regular. Padel Peterborough already has eight courts across two city locations, but a string of planning approvals has turned the city into one of the clearest examples of padel moving well beyond the major metro hubs.

The next four courts are lined up for Peterborough One Retail Park off Eye Road, where Pulse Padel’s covered courts were approved on October 3, 2025. The plan includes daily opening hours from 7am to 11pm, and the application drew 12 supportive representations against one objection, a sign that the sport’s growth is being met with broad local backing as well as the odd concern.

Peterborough’s first wave of courts came through a separate proposal in Stanground, where Alan Jordan’s application was approved in July 2025 to convert four unused tennis courts next to Powerleague into five padel courts and three pickleball courts. Sport England backed that move, arguing that the sporting benefit outweighed the loss of tennis courts. In August 2025, Peterborough had three active padel planning applications and a fourth approved, underlining how quickly the city’s court map was changing. A separate bid for two courts at Burghley Park Golf Club was later withdrawn after concerns over the loss of seven trees.

The local boom mirrors a national surge that has taken padel from niche to mainstream in short order. Lawn Tennis Association figures show participation in Great Britain rising from 15,000 players in 2019 to 400,000 by the end of 2024, then to more than 860,000 by the end of 2025. Court supply has moved just as fast, from 69 when the LTA took over governance in 2020 to 893 across 300 venues by May 2025, and then 1,553 courts across 559 venues by the end of 2025.

Sport England’s Active Lives survey also recorded 51,000 adults playing padel twice a month in 2023-24, up from 23,000 in 2022-23. The format helps explain the jump: padel is usually played in doubles on a smaller enclosed court, and its glass walls keep rallies alive. The International Padel Federation traces the sport to Acapulco, Mexico, in 1969, when Enrique Corcuera invented it and Viviana Corcuera drafted the first rules. With more than three-quarters of venues involved in some form of community outreach and average off-peak bookings at about £7 per person per hour, Peterborough’s growth looks less like a flash trend than a sport finding the exact conditions it needs to stick.