A second covered padel centre with four courts and about 20 extra parking spaces is planned at Coldeast, next to Holly Hill Leisure Centre. Councillors decide on 2 November.

Fareham could get a second covered padel centre, on part of the open space at Coldeast next to Holly Hill Leisure Centre. The council’s Executive decides on Monday 2 November whether to agree the plan in principle.

The report to the Executive says operator Padel4All would pay the whole building cost. The council, as landowner, would collect a guaranteed annual rent and a share of court fees. Coldeast is in Sarisbury, about four miles west of Fareham town centre.

What is proposed

The report sets out the plan:

  • a covered centre with four padel courts on about 1,600 square metres of the Coldeast open space
  • around 20 extra car parking spaces, including accessible bays, open to everyone using the leisure centre, the pitches, the play area and the open space, not only padel players
  • LED lighting on 5-metre columns inside the cover, four lights to a court
  • food and drink throughout opening hours, including alcohol subject to licensing; the operator says it will work with the existing catering concession outside the leisure centre
  • opening seven days a week, with about six jobs

Padel4All would take a 20-year lease, with the option to walk away after five, ten and fifteen years. The rent would be reviewed every five years in line with RPI, with any rise capped at 3% a year. The rent figure itself is in a confidential appendix, so it is not public.

Why Coldeast

Padel4All opened Fareham’s first covered centre at Park Lane Recreation Ground in May 2026. The report says it is already running at about 80% capacity, and is often fully booked. The Coldeast site would be a copy of that centre, aimed at players in the western wards.

The two sites would share one membership and one booking system. Courts are mainly pay-and-play, with junior and family prices and a membership scheme for discounted court fees, the report says. Coaching would come from LTA-accredited coaches. The company has also offered to work with Sarisbury Infant and Junior Schools and Brookfield Community School.

The steps before anything is built

An Executive vote is only the first stage. The council would then have to:

  • advertise the loss of open space in a local newspaper for two weeks running, as the law requires for any lease of open space over seven years
  • consider any objections; if there are any, the plan comes back to the Executive
  • get consent from Homes England, which owns neighbouring land at Coldeast under a 2013 planning agreement covering the community facility land
  • see the scheme through a separate planning application, which Padel4All would submit

The report says building could start in summer 2027, with the centre open in early 2028. It calls that timetable indicative, depending on ground conditions, planning and contractor availability.

What it means for you

If you use Holly Hill Leisure Centre or the play area, the main change would be a smaller patch of open grass and around 20 more parking spaces. The report expects about eight car trips in the centre’s busiest hour.

If you want to object to losing the open space, watch for the council’s notice in the local paper after 2 November. That notice is the formal route for representations. The planning application comes later, with its own consultation.

If you already play at Park Lane, a Coldeast centre would sit on the same membership.

The Executive meets at 5pm on Monday 2 November. The agenda and papers are on the council’s website. The same meeting decides the final bin policy.

Sources