Padel players plan to promote their popular sport by taking a bus to protest at a council meeting this evening, arguing for expanded facilities in a north Bedfordshire village.
About 30 enthusiasts will attend a Bedford Borough Council planning committee meeting, hoping councillors will overturn officers’ recommendation for refusal, which would allow them to continue playing matches in Podington.
Applicant Bromborough Estate submitted a part-retrospective change of use of a barn to provide two padel courts, with other works, at Greys Farm in Wymington Road.
The site is outside any settlement boundary and is already operating, despite a similar application being rejected previously because it was unacceptable in principle, according to a report to the committee.
This was because no sequential test assessment was submitted to justify such a use in open countryside at an out-of-town location, the report said.
National Planning Policy Framework
“It failed to accord with a relevant policy of the Bedford Borough Local Plan 2030.
“The development also didn’t comply with another plan policy based on its isolated location, a lack of information to show a current and future need for the activity, and that the project met an identified need.
“Another reason for refusal was a lack of information to show there’d be no harmful noise impact on local residential amenity.
“The application would be unacceptable in principle, as it would see the siting of a main town centre use, as defined by the national planning policy framework (NPPF), outside a town centre or edge-of-centre.
“This means it would have insufficient justification in regard to a sequential test assessment, as required by Local Plan 2030 and NPPF 2026 policies.
“Given its rural setting, the site would be in an unsustainable location and again fail to accord with NPPF 2026 and Local Plan 2030 policy.
“There would be no concerns about visual amenity, highways, flooding and ecology, while compiling a noise report has overcome that element of the earlier rejection.”
Conservative Harrold Cllr Alison Foster called in the application in case planning officers suggested it should be turned down.
Read: Councillor calls in refused Podington padel court plans for decision
Her reasons included “sustainable growth and expansion of a rural business through the conversion of a building and well-designed premises”, the report explained.
Very few padel courts
“There are very few padel courts within a 25-mile radius, and there are a large number of members registered to play there.”
Podington, Farndish and Hinwick Parish Council expressed “strong support for the development”, saying it has “concerns with the borough council’s assessment that the scheme ‘isn’t small-scale’.
It suggests the plans are “a rural diversification, for which there’s a large amount of local support and community demand”, and offer both “physical and wellbeing benefits to the members”.
A large number of representations have backed the change of use, with one objection, the report added. “Given the issues raised, the application isn’t considered to overcome the previous reason for refusal relating to the principle of development and its unsustainable location.
“While the NPPF has been revised since that decision, the requirement for a sequential assessment remains the same.”
By Euan Duncan
Local Democracy Reporter
