The plan to turn a football pitch at Wandle Recreation Centre into padel courts has been pulled, for now, but the footballers who have been playing on it for decades remain literally locked out.
On Wednesday, Putney.news visited the centre and found a chain and padlock held the gate to pitch 5 shut, with no one on the pitch while, beside it, the smaller five-a-side pitches were in continual use.
Places Leisure, the company that runs the centre for the council, withdrew its application to convert the pitch on Monday. It has not said why, and the council has not said whether the pitch will reopen. It followed a flurry of complaints from footballers who said they were not informed about the plans and who strongly dispute the grounds under which it has been closed.
The players who booked it, a midweek group who say they have played there for more than 30 years, found out by email. “We were told, at very short notice on 21 September, that Pitch 5 had been closed on safety grounds and locked down with immediate effect, and we could not play on our pitch which is block booked for the whole year,” said Paul Donkersley, one of the group’s organisers. “We only found out about the planning application through our own efforts.”
The council gave its reasons for closing the pitch in a letter backing the padel plan. It says a review of its facilities found hazards “surrounding the playing surface and with no run-off”, meaning no room at the edges to slow down before the wall. Options to remove them “were explored but these were deemed unviable”. The same letter says Places Leisure first proposed padel courts on pitch 5 in its bid for the council’s leisure contract.
Pitch-side walls have been under scrutiny since a 21-year-old non-league footballer died in September last year, reportedly after colliding with one during a match in north London. The Football Association undertook a review of pitches but it is not clear if the one at Wandle Recreation Centre was one of them.
The players have not seen the council’s review. It has not been published, and it was not among the documents filed with the application. “We still haven’t had sight of the council’s health and safety report, that has led to the closure,” said Tim Barnard, another of the players.
What the objectors said
Twenty people objected to the plan with one writing in support – the head of a national trade body whose members include Places Leisure. Most of the objectors say they play on the pitch, and several live outside the borough. Not one of them is against padel: most say the courts could go somewhere else on the site.
The statements note that nobody asked them about the plans, though the design statement filed with the application promised that, once it went in, “consultation will have taken place with Leisure Centre users and any adjacent local residents”. “We have not been consulted at all,” Donkersley wrote in his objection.
They also say the centre’s four smaller pitches are no substitute. At about 50 metres long, pitch 5 is the biggest of the five. “Preserving a booking is not the same as preserving equivalent sporting provision,” wrote Rahul Prashar.
Others question the closure itself. “I have never witnessed an incident caused by these walls,” wrote Henry Cook.
No replacement pitch has been secured. The council wants one built elsewhere on the site through “a subsequent Planning application”, but Places Leisure’s planning statement said the padel scheme “is not dependent on that further proposal”. Donkersley says Places Leisure has indicated, through the council’s case officer, that it is considering a new application covering both padel courts and a football pitch.
The council was asked more than a week ago when it decided to close pitch 5 and when the people who booked it were told. It has not answered, despite a reminder on Monday. Places for People said it was looking into questions sent at the same time, but has not answered them.
“Our focus has always been ‘save pitch 5’,” Barnard said. “For now, it’s ‘reopen pitch 5’.”
