St Nicholas school in bid to build specialist padel tennis courts
News / Fri 10th Oct 2025 at 08:05am
A HISTORIC private school in Essex is set to build new padel tennis courts, which it says will bring “significant benefits” to both its students and the wider community.
St Nicholas School, in Hobbs Cross Road, Harlow, has been given the go-ahead for the three covered padel tennis courts.
The school was established in 1939 and has been at its current site since 1977. The school has approximately 500 students and is a registered charity. The courts are expected to be open from 7am to 10pm, and the plans also include floodlighting for the courts.
It is also expected that it will be used by groups and clubs as well as other members of the community outside of school hours and times. The plans state: “This application to build padel courts at St Nicholas School will enhance the school’s sporting facilities and provide significant benefits to its students and the wider community. Introducing padel courts will not only diversify the school’s sports curriculum, offering students a new and exciting athletic outlet, but it can also foster teamwork, coordination, and strategic thinking.
“Padel is easy to pick up, fun and dynamic, friendly and social. It is not power-dominant, so it is easy for the whole family to compete. Padel is also seen as an extremely beneficial hobby when it comes to exercise and health, and the social benefits of Padel are now well known, as it is always played in doubles and extremely social. Adults and children of all ages and sporting backgrounds quickly get hooked, and it continues to engage adults, maybe after they have found other sports like squash too physically demanding.”
Harlow Council has given the plans the go-ahead. The planning officer’s report states: “The proposed padel courts would provide both an educational benefit for the existing school sports curriculum at this educational site adjacent to the existing tennis courts and also a local community benefit, although it is not clear from the submission the extent to which the proposed facility would be made available to the general public and on what basis.”
Adam
2025-10-10 08:27:21
Best School In Harlow
Deb bee
2025-10-10 11:26:53
Great idea but I hope this isnt close to residential housing because this is so loud and causes a noise nuisance especially at 10pm.theres been complaints about the noise in other areas these courts have been set up. The noise has been measured as similar to a gun shot
Colleen Morrison
2025-10-10 17:45:15
Padel courts are beset by controversy and objections all over UK, due to the anti-social noise of padels relentlessly hitting balls - said to sound like gun shots! - and the shouting and swearing of participants for many hours, day and night. St Nicholas' School is in the middle of a neighbourhood, so I hope these courts will have sound proofing. Given that there is to be flood lighting of these courts, they will presumably be outdoors, so I hope the flood lighting will not be like the outdoor flood lighting of Mark Hall School's facilities a few years ago, which blinded and distracted on the A414 and local people until the floodlights had to be permanently switched off.
Whatever.77
2025-10-11 08:05:31
Another crackpot way of making money. For heavens sake, it's only a few yards from the David Loyd sports club. Does anyone at the Town Hall ever think about the quality of life for the residents of Hobbs X Road ? We are already having constant dis-ruption from very early hours by H G V traffic delivering to both the schools and using the road as a short cut to the M 11. Also, 50 ton weight limit signs are being completely ignored. The pavements are used daily as parking spaces for the schools, not much peace and quiet for us residents, but, I don't think that it can get any worse.
Colleen Morrison
2025-10-11 11:15:59
Good points, Whatever.77. The noise from the Padel Courts, if not sound proofed, will also cause noise nuisance for residents of New Hall, once the development there is brought up behind Hobbs Cross Road and Churchgate Street. St Nicholas' School refers to the Padel game as 'Tennis Padel, however Padel sport is nothing like tennis. Padel uses hard bats and games are played on a hard surface, surrounded by metal fences and hard barriers. Padel is a much faster moving game than tennis, it uses a 40:40 rule. And a number of Padel courts are usually sandwiched together. All of this, plus shouting and swearing, are what causes Padel games' noise issues.
Colleen Morrison
2025-10-11 11:32:21
St Nicholas' grounds is also an elevated site, which means sound and floodlighting carry further. Some years ago, when the old Kennels behind St Nicholas' were operational, there were endless complaints regarding the noise of the hounds in the kennels at night, which could be heard all around Hobbs Cross Road, Elmbridge and Churchgate Street. Those kennels were around a 1km further back from those neighbourhoods than I believe the Padel courts would be. My guess is the Padel Courts will be near St Nicholas' tennis courts. As you suggest, there will also be a parking issue, as St Nicholas' has far too few parking spaces in its grounds, so St Nic's pupils' parents - plus parents dropping children at Churchgate School next door - park all along Churchgate Street, Hobbs Cross Road and the Sheering Road. The elevated nature of St Nicholas' grounds, will also make the flood lighting more intrusive and glaring: which was one of the issues with Mark Hall School's floodlit tennis, netball etc courts. The courts are on a site elevated c 2m above the level of the A414 and the poles that the floodlights were on were very tall. That floodlighting blinded drivers driving along that section of the A414 and made your eyes painful, it was such a dangerous distraction for drivers.
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