The Bandeja Magazine Issue 2

feature
HENLEAZE LAKE
padel4all Lockleaze
BISHOPSTON
REDLAND
EASTON
BRISTOL
redland green
we are padel
surge
HILLFIELDS
rocket padel
Bristol is a great city
“
and we want to enable
the community to
play so everyone from
whatever age can
come and join us...
”
Carl-Henric Heimdal
community,” he said. “Bristol is a
great city and we want to enable the
community to play so everyone from
whatever age can come and join us,
try the sport and get as passionate
about it as we are.”
He believes that competition
between padel centres will be a
positive: “A little bit of competition
gets everyone to do a better job,”
he said. “I see it as a really positive
thing and I hope everybody does the
same. There is going to be enough
padel4all
room for all of us and there is so
much more that we need to build
and do in the UK. The more people
that play the sport the better it is.”
Surge, has gained planning
approval to turn a disused
warehouse on Lodge Causeway
Trading Estate, Fishponds, into an
eight court facility. The company,
which opened Surge Harrogate, the
UK’s first multi-court indoor centre
in Yorkshire last year, submitted its
plans to Bristol City Council in June
2022 and is now pressing ahead with
developing the site.
On a smaller scale are padel plans
for Redland Green Club (formerly
Bristol Lawn Tennis & Squash Club),
a community amateur sports club
(CASC) multi-sport venue with
around 1,250 members (500 of whom
are juniors). It has gained planning
for two outdoor, floodlit padel courts
to replace a little-used hard tennis
court. It hopes to capitalise on the
popularity of padel, attracting new
members and offering existing ones
‘enhanced playing facilities’.
The club’s committee has given
great thought to the location of the
new padel courts, as documents
submitted to planners revealed:
“The location, which is immediately
adjacent to our club house, offers
great spectator viewing from both
the upper floor of the club house
and from the outside seating area.
We see this as a great advantage in
promoting the sport and should help
fully integrate padel tennis into the
current rackets offering.”submitted its
plans to Bristol City Council in June. •
WINTER 2023
23