UPDATED Wandsworth Council has closed a football pitch at Wandle Recreation Centre on safety grounds, and is now backing a plan to turn it into four padel courts.
The council’s letter backing the plan says pitch 5, a floodlit artificial pitch, had hazards “surrounding the playing surface and with no run-off”. It also argues that options to remove them “were explored but these were deemed unviable”, it says, “and so the decision was taken to close the pitch to football bookings”.
Places for People’s planning statement puts the space behind each goal at “approximately 1.5 metres”, with none at either side, and a low brick wall around three edges.
The padel courts would be built by Places for People, the company that runs the centre for the council under a ten-year contract. It was already planning four padel courts at the centre. The council’s Culture and Leisure team, in a letter to the planners, “fully supports this proposal”. Work would start in November and finish in January if approved.
The players who use the pitch are not convinced. One told Putney.news that their sport group only heard about the padel plan after the deadline for comments passed on 2 September. He called the safety grounds “spurious”, and they have lodged objections. Places for People says it has stopped taking new football bookings on the pitch and is moving existing ones to the centre’s four other artificial pitches.
It’s not clear the football pitch will be replaced either. The council says it wants one built elsewhere on the site through “a subsequent Planning application” but no details have emerged and Places for People’s planning statement explicitly states that the padel scheme “is not dependent on that further proposal”, and that a new pitch “will be explored through the centre’s capital investment and transformation project”.
Adding to suspicions is the fact that pitch 5 Padel is not a new idea. The council letter notes that Places for People had previously proposed padel courts on pitch 5 during negotiations for its new contract that began on 1 October 2025.
There is some justification for the safety claim: on 20 September 2025 a 21-year-old footballer was injured, reportedly after hitting a concrete wall, during a non-league match at Wingate & Finchley’s ground in Finchley, north London. He died five days later.
Places for People’s planning statement cites the death. The council’s letter says the Football Foundation “is undertaking a review of all their funded facilities”, and that the council “also undertook a review of its facilities”. The council has not said when it reviewed pitch 5, or when it decided to close it.
No decision has been announced. The target date was 28 September, but the council has been moving to a new planning system, and on 29 September the application was still listed as registered, with online comments paused.
We contacted Wandsworth Council and Places for People with questions three days ago. The council has not responded. Places for People said it was looking into them, but has yet to reply.
What you can do
The council’s planning application software is currently being upgraded and so it not available. Comments on application 2026/2802 however can be emailed to planning@wandsworth.gov.uk. The council’s page says it is still accepting them; during the changeover they are logged and considered by the case officer, but not published. The case officer is Ben Hayter, on 020 8871 8319.
The ward councillors for Wandsworth Town are Michelle Cook (Labour), Noel Dube (Conservative) and Sarah Davies (Labour).
Update, 8 October 2026: Places for People withdrew this planning application on 5 October. Pitch 5 is still closed: read the latest.
The planning applications system is now back on line, but moved. Search via the main Council web site.