News

Your support made all the difference

Our planning application for 6 indoor courts, club house, community rooms and cycle lane was approved by the SDC councillors on the 19th of June! 

A big thank you to everyone who wrote in providing comments of support and emails to their ward councillors. During the development management committee, one councillor remarked that in their many years of being on the Committee in Sevenoaks District Council, they could not recall an application with such overwhelming support. 

Sevenoaks is 93% greenbelt and therefore planning was always going to be challenging, and we worked with ward councillors alongside planning officers to ensure that the benefits proposed (in our opinion) outweighed the “harm” of the development.

Despite these efforts, the planning officers wrote a robust case for refusal. On the night, we had support from our Ward Councillor, our Ward Secretary and our founder, James Hall, presented our case (within a 3-minute limit!).

A lively debate ensued: cries of “listen to the locals” rang out, and citations of our 506 positive comments. The vote was unanimous, with no opposing votes. A loud cheer erupted from all the Sevenoaks padelistas who attended the session.

Next steps

We are busy agreeing the standard conditions associated with a major development. Once agreed, the application will be forwarded to the Secretary of State, who will have 28 days to “call it in”. At the expiry of 28 days, we are able to start our development process. This includes:

• Discharging the conditions
• Groundworks
• Electricity and water
• Foundations
• Canopy
• Courts
• Clubhouse
• And final planning requirements

Our estimation is best case 6 months to courts, with worst case being a year. 

We’re planning a summer party on the 2nd of August, including box league finals, open games, a South African “braai” and a DJ to facilitate the serious busting of shapes into the night.