Bishop’s Stortford Lawn Tennis Club is hoping to serve an ace as it bids to build padel courts at its Cricketfield Lane home.
Currently, East Herts Council has the advantage after initial proposals were rejected on Green Belt grounds.
Padel is played in doubles on courts that are 25% smaller than standard. The sport was founded in 1969 in the Mexican beach resort of Acapulco by Enrique Corcuera and is popular on the Continent.
As part of its efforts to bring the sport to the town despite English weather, the tennis club proposed courts with a canopy to be built on scrubland but has now removed the protection from the elements.
It will submit the new plans while also appealing the original refusal.
Despite no objections from the town council, the district blocked the club’s first attempt saying: “The proposed development would constitute inappropriate development within the Green Belt as it would not preserve its openness.
“Other considerations would not clearly outweigh the harm by reason of inappropriateness and loss of openness.”
However, club manager Natalie Dwyer hoped a revised scheme or the appeal would go straight down the line.
She said: “The area within our club that we are proposing to add padel courts is scrubland, and with thousands of new homes being built on Green Belt land, it is bizarre that this has been cited as the main reason for refusal. We have plenty more open space around the club and feel that this area is the least harmful to the ‘openness of the Green Belt’.”
She pointed to the Bishop’s Stortford Neighbourhood Plan which seeks to encourage “appropriate use of Green Belt for sensitively designed outdoor sport, leisure and community facilities”.
She said: “In a town that is growing at an alarming pace, where will these new homeowners play sport? What facilities are being prepared to offer the thousands of newcomers and their families?”
She said the padel plans had support from both tennis and squash club members who currently have to travel for up to an hour to alternative facilities.
“We will be resubmitting our application, albeit without the canopy which provides shelter from the rain, and also appealing the decision to reject our application. We are looking for support from local councillors who will support our application and ensure it is brought to committee to discuss fully and are looking into how we gain support from the townspeople of Bishop’s Stortford to aid our appeal.”
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