VEREENIGING. – Neighbouring residents have expressed deep frustration over operations of a new padel club located at in General Hertzog Road in Three Rivers.
The residents have expressed concern about, amoung other things, an apparent violation of zoning regulations, a lack of compliance to municipal by-laws, light pollution, noise disturbance and a violation of trading hours.
One of the residents have also threatened to obtain a court interdict against the padel club.
Padel, sometimes called padel tennis, is a fast-paced racket sport of Mexican origin, similar to tennis or squash, typically played in doubles on an enclosed court sightly smaller than a doubles tennis court.
It is currently the world’s fastest growing sport and all over the world new padel courts are being built to keep up with the trend, including in the Vaal.
Shayne Wellman, a concerned resident and community activist, has recently written to the local ward councillor, Dalene Venter, as well as the Emfuleni Local Municipality’s Land Use Management Department asking them to urgently intervene into the matter.
Wellman says: “One of the biggest concerns is that the club is currently operating from a property with an incorrect zoning classification. Additionally, there appears to be violations of normal business hours, causing significant disruptions within our community.”
Wellman says previous attempts to address these issues about the club seem to have been unsuccessful or fallen on deaf ears.
“I believe the club has a responsibility to maintain positive relations with the community. Community engagement and consultation is critical to fostering positive relations.
“Businesses should actively involve residents in decision-making processes, address concerns, and contribute to community development where possible. This has not happened here,” Wellman concluded.
Dalene Venter, councillor for Ward 1 of the Emfuleni Local Municipality, confirmed that the matter had been brought to her attention.
She says that the local ward committee had met with the local franchisee earlier this week to establish whether or not the proper zoning had been obtained.
It is still unclear how the property has been zoned. Although Vaalweekblad could not confirm this the property is said to be zoned for light office use.
According to Venter, Anton Mojapel, the Emfuleni Local Municipality’s town planner said that he would personally inspect the property.
She says she has not received any feedback yet.
Venter said that a meeting would be held early in the next year to address resident’s concerns.
Adrian Jacobs, national owner of the 10by20 Padel Club, says the padel club has been operating for the past 6 months.
“It has been very successful and the community love it,” he says.
According to Jacobs people from the Vaal previously had to drive all the way to Johannesburg to play padel, now they have a padel club right on their doorstep.
He says that where the padel club now stands used to be a dilapidated house where vagrants were sleeping.
“We have invested a lot of money to make it a better place. We used local tilers and local labour.”
“When the club opened, we went to local schools and gave kids free access. There were some complaints about the heat between 10:00 16:00, so we had to put up a shading structure,” he says.
He assured Vaalweekblad that the structure, which apparently cost R1.5 million to erect, had been approved by engineers.
According to Jacobs he understands that some people are against the new padel club, but says that the club has mostly been met positive response from the community.