Edinburgh Powerleague submits plans for four new padel tennis courts with floodlights, canopies & viewing area

Part of a proposed extension of its Sighthill site at 66 Bankhead Drive, the five-a-side football business aims to capitalise on the growing popularity of padel tennis

This latest application by Powerleague follows similar plans being approved this month at its Portobello complex.

The Powerleague football complex site at Sighthill in Edinburgh. | City of Edinburgh Council

In order to accommodate the padel courts, one of the existing 5 a-side football pitches will be removed. Two new courts will be introduced to the east of the clubhouse, replacing a football pitch, and two courts will be introduced to the west of the clubhouse on vacant landscaped land.

The proposals include spectators viewing areas and five new bike stands with the ability to accommodate 10 bicycles. As part of the proposals, two existing car parking spaces will be reduced in width and converted to motorcycle spaces, with bollards introduced adjacent to the spaces to segregate the car park from the playing courts.

Stock photo of a padel tennis court.

In the planning documents for this application, Powerleague said: “The introduction of Padel to this location will be of huge benefit to local community health and wellbeing, allowing access to this new and fast growing sport on an equitable basis. We offer a pay and play model, meaning that anyone from the community can play via an online booking app.

“There will be no material loss to available and useable public open space as a result of the proposal. The proposed use as outdoor sports is compatible with the Open Space designation, and already established as being acceptable in principle at this location, a material consideration to the determination of this application.

“The proposed development will improve and diversify the provision of sport and recreation facilities at this location.”

Each padel court will have a footprint of 10m x 20m and the courts will be spaced two metres apart, located either side of the pavilion building. The padel courts will be largely contained within the footprint of the north-east five a-side pitch and on land between the pitch and car park area.

The two “new build” courts will be located to the western side of the pavilion building and set out in an L-shape, wrapping around the building. In order to avoid root protection zones identified for matures trees to the west, the siting of the courts will require a slight incursion into the existing parking area.

Much like the existing football pitches, the proposed padel courts, will have a synthetic carpet surface and they will be enclosed by clear glazed panels with mesh fencing and floodlights above.

The proposals involve the reuse and extension of one existing five-a-side pitch to create two courts, and the creation of two new courts on vacant adjacent land to the west of the pavilion, between the football pitches and car park. | City of Edinburgh Council

The associated canopy, formed of six sub-canopies over each padel court, will stand separate to the padel court structures with a maximum height of nine metres and finished in a translucent opal fabric. The proposed canopy does not fully enclose each court but is designed to allow use of the padel courts all year round, and during all weather.

Padel players will utilise the existing changing facilities within the pavilion, with no external or internal alterations proposed to the building.

Padel is a growing sport in Great Britian, now under the direction of the Lawn Tennis Association who are the recognised governing body for padel. There are currently 550 courts in the UK with a further 500 in construction or in the planning process. Over 90,000 people play the sport in the UK and this number is set to grow

The current Powerleague Sighthill site built in the 1990s, then known as The Pitz, operates with two 7 a-side and six 5-a-side football pitches.

It is bound to the north by Bankhead Drive, to the east by Sighthill Public Park and the B701 Broomhouse Road, to the south by playing fields associated with Sighthill Park, and to the west by Makro Edinburgh and Edinburgh College’s Sighthill Campus.