Residents raise concerns over pickleball noise, town council installed wire mesh in courts

SINGAPORE: The noise from pickleballs has been a major nuisance to many Singaporeans for the last two years, and it has been affecting their everyday lives. This issue was not new to the residents of Tiong Bahru, and as a solution, the town council installed a metal net in the centre of the court, creating a so-called metal badminton net and making it unsuitable for playing pickleball. 

According to some residents, the pickleball games start as early as dawn and continue until 6 p.m. More so, another group of players will start playing around 9 p.m. The sound of hitting the ball is almost non-stop from morning to night, and some players play loud music that disturbs other residents’ rest. 

“We live too close to the stadium, so we inevitably suffer from noise pollution. If adding wire mesh can improve the problem, I think it would be great for the residents here,” a resident declared. 

When reporters visited the area, they discovered that both badminton courts had been fitted with wire mesh, and the height of the mesh was exactly the same as that of the badminton net. Around the court, there were notices encouraging people to play at nearby venues if they want to play pickleball. Furthermore, there is a notice that asks people to lower the volume when playing music or games to avoid disturbing others. 

The town council stated that not all courts are suitable for playing pickleball, and there are vicinities that they encourage people to use when they want to play the said sport. 

In similar news, a resident shared on TikTok how he was unable to sleep well due to a group of pickleball players continuing their game late into the night. 

In a TikTok video posted by user @oddom.2, several people were shown still playing pickleball at a multi-purpose court near an HDB block. The user added his sentiments as text in the video, stating: “It’s almost 10 pm and I can’t sleep because of these pickleball players… Some of us need to get up early, BTW.”

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