Padel: Plan for £2.5m centre for booming racquet sport

Work on the new padel facility near the Trafford Centre is set to be finished in 2024

Plans to build a £2.5m complex dedicated to one of the fastest-growing sports in the UK have been approved.

Developers Peel Waters have been given permission to build 11 padel courts, a clubhouse and a gym near the Trafford Centre in Greater Manchester.

Billed as the 'largest padel facility in the north', it has been designed for Wilmslow-based The Padel Club.

Padel is described as a hybrid of tennis and squash in which teams of two compete in walled court.

Celebrities including Stormzy and David Beckham are known to be players, and ex-Premier League footballers Ryan Giggs and Shay Given are among investors in the Padel Club.

Members include includes sports commentator and former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan, and Olympic snowboarder Aimee Fuller.

'Enjoyable sport'

Padel was invented in Mexico in the late 1960s, and there has been a boom in interest in the sport in recent years.

There are about 90,000 active players in the UK, with more than 300 courts available, according to the Lawn Tennis Association.

Padel has been popular in European countries for many years

Shay Given said he was looking forward to The Padel Club expanding into Trafford, adding it was "such an accessible and enjoyable sport".

The new padel courts by the Trafford Centre are expected to open by the end of 2024, as part of the Peel Group's wider regeneration of the area.

The proposals were approved by Trafford Council.