Shay Given’s €4m Padel Centre For Kill Refused Over Equine Zoning Rules

Monday, 29 September 2025 22:17

By Martin Osborne - Head of News. Got a story? Email news@kfmradio.com

Arena Padel, co-founded by former Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given and businessman Declan Fagan, had lodged planning permission for the €4 million indoor padel facility.

Kildare County Council has refused permission for a new padel centre in Kill.

The plans included nine indoor courts, changing rooms, and parking on land near Goffs.

Arena Padel, co-founded by former Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given and businessman Declan Fagan, had lodged planning permission for the €4 million indoor padel facility.

The proposed 45,000 sq. ft centre was to include nine championship-standard courts, a “bio-circuit” gym, and recovery rooms. Developers said the facility would have created 30 jobs.

But the council said the land is zoned only for horse-related use.

Under what’s called the “Equine Based Leisure Tourism and Enterprise” zoning, land there can only be used for equine industry, tourism, or business.

Officials said the padel centre breaks that rule and warned it could set “an undesirable precedent” for other non-horse projects.

A report outlining why the project was refused stated that because the project "is not an equine based development" it "would set an undesirable precedent for similar non-equine related uses on the landholding and is therefore contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area."

The developer, SFW Distribution Limited, has four weeks to appeal the decision to An Coimisiún Pleanála.

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