Liverpool star Trent Alexander-Arnold has won a war of plans: he can keep the £50,000 padel court he built on his £5 million mansion.
Alexander-Arnold, who bought the space from Raheem Sterling when he left Manchester City for Chelsea in 2022, built the land on his lawn and obtained permission from the local parish council.
Concerns about noise and impact on the court may also have effects on the nearby countryside, prompting council officers to investigate and Alexander-Arnold would likely have been forced to demolish the court. However, the defender has been granted retroactive permission to remain on the pitch provided he agrees to remove four flood protectors to “avoid minor contamination”.
Alexander-Arnold has been linked with an exit from Liverpool as he enters the final year of his contract, with Real Madrid keen to sign him, but the war suggests he will likely not advance anywhere after doing everything he can to stay on the pitch. Two years pass.
“In this case, the site is well surrounded by significant existing plantations on the northern, southern and western boundaries, making it visible from the public perspective in all directions,” the case manager said. “Therefore, the physical invasion of The Field would be visually contained within the site, with no view to the outside.
“The length of the panel court is also not excessively large for personal use with a terrain domain of 130 m² and a main height of 3 m and a maximum height of four m for the side panels which are made of a soft trellis above. The black color also helps the proposal integrate with the existing boundary treatment.
“Therefore, given the small nature of the proposal and its focus from a public perspective, the proposal is not considered to cause unacceptable harm to the character and appearance of the surrounding domain or the countryside generally.
“Nor is the proposed personal use and its limited length considered to cause significant damage to amenities through noise or nuisance and is not considered to be particularly different in those terms from other sports or recreational uses discovered in open field. “
Alexander-Arnold also hired landscapers to plant trees and hedges to provide cover for the court, and the council deemed the environmental effects of the structure to be “relatively low. “
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