MUMBLES: Padel courts to replace the old seafront tennis courts, and the car park is coming back

The old tennis courts on Mumbles Road are to become three padel courts, with the car park that vanished under the sea wall works back beside them.

The site between the Oyster House and Oystermouth Bowls Club has been out of use for years, first as the builders’ compound for the £26.5m sea defences, then fenced off while Swansea Council decided what to do with it.

Now the council has put in its own planning application: three courts, the parking reinstated, a new footpath from Mumbles Road through to the seafront, and planting to match the new prom.

What Mumbles asked for

The council’s images show the courts in a row against the bowling green, which is untouched, with a car park of around 20 bays in front, two of them marked for electric vehicles, and the Oyster House terrace looking over the lot.

The council asked residents, businesses and visitors in January last year what should go there, acknowledging that some wanted the tennis courts back and others had “further ideas”.

It says the answer was overwhelming: racquet sports should return, and padel was the one most people named.

Cllr Andrew Stevens, the cabinet member for environment and infrastructure, said the plans showed “we have listened carefully to what our communities want and we are delivering on that feedback”.

The parking promise

The sea wall and the wider prom opened in July last year, and the redesign took car parking with it. Keeping the same number of spaces was a commitment the council made before the work started, and the site is where it is honouring it.

Cllr Stevens said reinstating the spaces would provide “convenience for visitors and supporting local businesses”. The plans as announced do not put a number on them.

From 15,000 players to 860,000

Padel is tennis crossed with squash: a court a third the size of a tennis court, walled in glass and mesh so the ball stays in play off the back, and a solid racket with no strings. It was invented in Acapulco in 1969.

In 2019 about 15,000 people in the UK played it. The Lawn Tennis Association counted around 860,000 last year, more than double the year before.

“Padel is one of the fastest-growing sports in the UK and is attracting people of all ages because it’s fun, social and easy to learn,” Cllr Stevens said.

Swansea has been slower than most to get a court. Six indoor courts are proposed for the Ninja Warrior unit at Parc Tawe, Neath Sports Centre is getting two on its unused tennis courts by spring 2027, and the council’s foreshore study wants courts beside the Singleton boating lake. The Mumbles plans are the first the council has put in for itself.

What the plans don’t say yet

There is no cost, no opening date and no word on who will run the courts or what a game will cost. The application goes to the council’s own planning committee; no date has been set.

Cllr Stevens said the council was “delighted to be bringing these exciting facilities to Mumbles, creating new opportunities for people to get active while making the most of this prime seafront location”.

Author

Kit Peters

Kit Peters is a journalist and the editor of Swansea Bay News, covering Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire since 2020.