Trent Alexander-Arnold has won a legal battle to keep a £50,000 ($66,000) padel court at the bottom of his garden despite complaints from neighbors.
The Liverpool right-back had the court installed at his £5.1million ($6.6 million) Cheshire mansion without acquiring planning permission, but he has now been granted retrospective planning permission after agreeing to a series of conditions set out by East Cheshire Council.
Alexander-Arnold agreed to take down four floodlights which were installed when the court was initially built two years ago, while he also agreed to hire landscapers to plant trees and bushes around the court.
The case officer said: “In this instance the site is well enclosed by substantial existing boundary planting to the north, south and west, so is screened from public vantage points in all directions. Therefore the physical encroachment into the open countryside would be visually contained inside the site with no external viewing.
“The size of the panel court is also not considered to be excessively large for private use with a footprint of 130sqm and predominant height of 3m and a maximum height of 4m for the side panels which consists of a light weight mesh above. The black colour also helps the proposal to blend in with the existing boundary treatment.
“Therefore given the relatively small scale nature of the proposal and its screening from public vantage points, it is not considered that the proposal would cause unacceptable harm to the character and appearance of the surrounding area or the wider open countryside.
(Image: 2025 CameraSport)
“The proposal for private use and its limited size is also not considered to cause significant harm to amenity through noise/disturbance and is not considered to be significantly different in these terms to other sport/recreational uses usually found within the open countryside.”
Alexander-Arnold might not be around for too long to use the court as the weather starts to improve in the north west of England, as he is the subject of interest from Real Madrid. The 26-year-old’s current contract at Liverpool is due to expire at the end of June, when he will be free to leave Anfield on a free transfer.
