Council scraps padel plans for Towneley Park

Burnley Council has scrapped plans to spend £436,000 building padel courts at Towneley Park, just six months after they were announced.

Financial documents submitted to a meeting of the authority’s executive on Wednesday reveal how the council’s position has changed since the padel courts were announced in April, with the aim of breathing new life into tennis courts that have fallen into disrepair.

Burnley Council’s plan to bring the racket game to Towneley Park was first pitched as the authority meeting ‘significant unmet demand’ for the ‘UK’s fastest growing sport’, with padel courts springing up all over East Lancashire in recent years.

The regeneration of these old tennis courts was recognised as a priority in the council’s Towneley Park Masterplan, in the hope that income from the use of the courts would cover the borrowing costs.

At the time in April, officers said the Lawn Tennis Association had identified significant unmet demand for padel in Burnley and argued that a council-backed facility would help address the shortage of local provision.

The Burnley Leisure-run facilities were expected to be covered and usable in all weather, with the council estimating that a 30 per cent occupancy rate would see a return on its investment.

However, according to the latest capital monitoring report presented to the executive, the authority has since identified up to 14 padel courts that are already being delivered by private developers across the borough.

“The proposed development of the padel tennis courts at Towneley Park, in partnership with Burnley Leisure & Culture, will not now be progressed because there are currently proposals for up to 14 privately funded padel courts at locations around the borough,” the report states.

As such, the scheme has now been cancelled before it had even reached the planning stage.

Officers say alternative uses for the former tennis court site will now be explored and brought forward in a future report.

The cancellation appears to have been driven by the speed at which private operators have moved into the local market.

In April, plans were submitted for what was described as Burnley’s first indoor padel club at the former Boohoo distribution centre on Heasandford Industrial Estate.

The proposal, submitted by the owners of Pendle Padel Club, would create eight doubles courts and one singles court and is expected to create around 20 jobs if approved. The developers said the scheme would help bring a vacant industrial site back into use while capitalising on the sport’s booming popularity.

That development alone would provide nine courts, suggesting it forms a substantial part of the council’s reference to up to 14 privately funded courts planned across the borough.

However, the council papers do not identify where the remaining proposed courts would be located or who is behind the other schemes.

The decision comes at a time of growing pressure on council finances. Burnley’s capital programme has increased from £24.8m approved in March to more than £31m, while the authority is also reporting a projected £176,000 overspend this year and a longer-term budget gap of £1.682m through to 2029/30.