Neighbours complain of 'hell of noise': club forced to close two padel courts open since 2006

La maison du couple est située tout près des deux terrains du Nice Lawn Tennis Club. CAPTURE ÉCRAN MAPS

Un club niçois a dû fermer ses deux terrains de padel après que des voisins se sont plaints de nuisances sonores.

Coming straight from Mexico, padel, a mix between tennis and squash, is a racket sport played on a court surrounded by glass and fencing and divided by a net.

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“It's unbearable!”

Settled since 2022 in a house adjoining two padel courts of the Nice Lawn Tennis Club (LTC) at Parc Impérial, Damien and his wife Cécile explain that they are living in hell. Living less than two meters from the courts, they speak of a “infernal noise”.

“We have the bullets coming all the time, plus it's enough to hear it is unbearable! Even with the windows closed, you can hear it inside. And it's from 8 am to 9:40 pm. When you're tired, for the children, it's a problem, they have school!”, Damien tells France 3.

Not forgetting the spotlights at night or the players' continuous shouts. At their wit's end and with no possibility of mediation with the club, the couple decided to take the matter to court.

The Nice club appeals

On January 27, the Nice judicial court ordered the LTC club “to cease padel activities, subject to a provisional penalty of 600 euros per day of delay” for abnormal disturbance of the neighborhood, reports Nice-Matin.

The club will therefore have to close its two courts open since 2006. It has decided to appeal. However, the judgment is not suspensive and should apply from February 4.

The lawyer for the Nice club, Maître Lionel Carlès, said he had seized “the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal to suspend the provisional execution” of the judgment, evoking “a financial catastrophe foretold”.

The hearing is to be held on February 13.