Portsmouth approves four new padel courts despite noise concerns

Portsmouth City Council approved four new padel courts at Canoe Lake in Southsea, signing off the plan on June 17, 2026 after it drew 63 public representations, including 48 in support and 15 objections. The scheme also includes perimeter fencing and floodlighting, pushing padel onto one of the city’s most visible seafront leisure sites.

The application came from Pike Planning on behalf of Court X. It will go on the tennis and volleyball court area off Southsea Esplanade, directly west of the Rose Gardens and east of the footpath linking Eastney Esplanade with Eastern Parade. The land already houses tennis, basketball and netball courts, and council officers said the proposal would keep the existing use class while broadening the leisure offer.

Supporters argued the new courts would revitalise the area and create a higher-quality sports hub. Objectors focused on noise and the loss of green space, concerns that have become familiar around padel as the sport spreads into tighter urban and coastal settings. In Portsmouth, the debate was not only about whether the city wanted the courts, but how much change a busy neighbourhood could absorb without friction.

That tension has become part of padel’s growth story in Hampshire. The Lawn Tennis Association describes padel as one of the fastest growing sports in Britain, and it has held national governing body responsibility for padel in Great Britain since 2020. The governing body has leaned on loan funding and local-authority engagement to expand court provision, but the recent run of projects in the county shows how quickly enthusiasm can meet resistance.

Hampshire has already seen what happens when neighbours conclude the sport is too loud or too intrusive. A padel plan in Eastleigh was withdrawn after residents objected to the loss of green space and feared noise. In Winchester, neighbours complained about sounds from padel courts that they said resembled gunshots, leading to a formal investigation by the city council and the prospect of a noise abatement notice.

Portsmouth’s approval keeps the expansion moving forward, but it also underlines the pressure point that now sits beside every new padel project: clubs can win planning consent on the strength of demand, yet community acceptance will depend on whether they can manage noise, layout and the edges of the site as carefully as the court surface itself.