Tunbridge Wells approves three padel courts at bowls club

Councillors backed three outdoor padel courts at the Royal Tunbridge Wells District Indoor Bowls Club in Hawkenbury on Monday, handing the club permission to ride Britain’s padel surge even though the site sits in Green Belt and High Weald National Landscape land. The approval also covers toilets, changing rooms and an office area, underlining that this is being treated as an expansion of an existing sports venue rather than a brand-new leisure complex.

That distinction matters. Folding padel into a bowls club gave the proposal a sporting cover story planners could work with, and the site’s existing use probably helped the argument that this was extension, not sprawl. The High Weald National Landscape team works on behalf of its Joint Advisory Committee across 15 local planning authorities, and its management plan is revised every five years, with the latest version published in 2024. In other words, Tunbridge Wells was not deciding in a vacuum.

The tougher issue is what happens when padel meets planning policy. UK Government Green Belt guidance was last updated on 27 February 2025 and specifically addresses the impact of development on the openness of the Green Belt. The Lawn Tennis Association’s padel construction guidance says courts require formal planning consent from the relevant local authority, and its construction notes also flag floodlighting posts and fittings as items that need consent. Noise is already the borough’s flashpoint: in July 2025, neighbours and club members fought separate plans at Tunbridge Wells Lawn Tennis Club, warning the sound could be like “constant gun shots.”

That is why this decision will be watched well beyond Hawkenbury. David Lloyd Leisure has already unveiled plans for a new Tunbridge Wells club that would include six outdoor padel courts, while in Maidstone the LTA has estimated that 12 courts are needed to meet growing demand, with only two courts currently in the borough, both in Marden. For operators across Kent, Tunbridge Wells now looks like a useful precedent: padel can win approval in sensitive countryside land, but only if the sporting case is strong enough to survive the noise, design and Green Belt tests.