Welshpool Town CouncilEP120826/5.2 - P/26/0711/ADV
This was a decision taken on 12/08/2026 by Events & Planning Committee numbered WTCM823.
Status: Completed
Vote Type: Standard
Proposer: Cllr Morag Bailey
Seconder: Cllr Kelly Meredith
Decision:
Members considered the planning application and provided the following response:
Response: Object
Comments:
Welshpool Town Council unanimously objects to this application on the following grounds;
Policy T1 – Travel, Traffic and Transport Infrastructure - Development should ensure the safe and efficient flow of traffic, manage impacts on the transport network and encourage sustainable travel.
The applicant states that approximately 90 spaces are leased within Berriew Street Car Park and that six further staff spaces would be provided within the service yard. A covered cycle shelter is proposed, and the bus station and railway station are within walking distance.
The applicant has failed to demonstrate that adequate parking is actually available to serve the development.
If 90 spaces are claimed but unavailable, vehicles associated with the gym could instead use surrounding streets or public car parks, potentially increasing parking pressure and affecting traffic and highway safety.
The application should be based on the parking spaces that are genuinely available and capable of being used by gym customers, rather than spaces that are merely shown or claimed by the applicant.
The local planning authority should seek:
a copy or suitable evidence of the parking lease;
a plan clearly distinguishing exclusive, allocated and publicly available spaces;
clarification of whether the 90 spaces can legally and operationally be reserved for gym users;
existing and predicted parking accumulation surveys;
a parking-management plan;
disabled parking provision close to the entrance;
safe pedestrian routes between the car park and entrance;
secure cycle parking with capacity proportionate to the use; and
electric vehicle charging arrangements.
The application should not result in a significant loss of conveniently located public parking or undermine the car park’s wider function in supporting the town centre.
Policy DM13 – Design and Resources - Development should avoid unacceptable impacts from noise, disturbance, lighting, hours of operation and traffic.
Noise, disturbance, lighting, traffic, parking and other impacts associated with the proposed use.
The applicant proposes a 24-hour gym, with staffing from around 6:00 am and cleaning staff remaining until approximately 10:00 pm. The facility would therefore be unstaffed for part of the night.
The submission states that overnight use would be low and that midnight-to-6:00 am attendance typically accounts for no more than 5% of visits. However, no acoustic assessment, noise-management plan or detailed operational statement has been provided.
Policy DM13 requires development to avoid unacceptable impacts upon nearby occupiers through matters including noise, disturbance, lighting, hours of operation and traffic. A gym can generate:
impact noise from free weights and resistance equipment;
amplified music and public-address systems;
vibration transmitted through the building;
vehicle movements and door closures during sensitive night-time hours;
conversations in the car park;
external lighting and illuminated signage; and
disturbance associated with an unstaffed overnight facility.
A retail store operating predominantly during daytime and evening hours is not directly comparable with an unstaffed 24-hour gym. The statement that the building has operated as a retail store without complaint therefore carries limited weight.
Before permitting 24-hour operation, the local planning authority should require:
an acoustic impact assessment;
details of the location and specification of free weights, studios, speakers and plant;
an assessment of structure-borne noise and vibration;
a noise-management plan;
arrangements for supervising the site overnight;
a complaints and incident-management procedure;
details of deliveries and waste collection; and
an assessment of activity in the car park during the night.
Policy R3 - Town Centres and Retail - Development should maintain or enhance the vitality and viability of the town centre.
The proposal must enhance, or at least avoid harming, the vitality and viability of the centre. The applicant has not provided a substantive assessment of:
The effect of losing approximately 960 sq m of retail floorspace;
Expected membership and visitor numbers;
Likely linked trips or expenditure in the town centre; or
How the gym would contribute to daytime footfall and the wider commercial function of Berriew Street.
As the property is outside the protected shopping frontages, the loss of the retail use is not necessarily contrary to Policy R3. However, the assertion that another gym would enhance vitality and viability needs more evidence than is currently supplied.
Accuracy and Completeness of the Application.
The application appears to be using an incorrect description of the existing provision.
The premises opposite are currently operating as a gym, but the application identifies them as a cinema. Therefore, the applicant's assessment of existing indoor recreation provision is factually inaccurate. This is particularly relevant to Policy C1 – Community Facilities and Indoor Recreation Facilities, which requires consideration of existing provision when assessing proposals for new indoor recreation facilities.
It is understood that where a proposal involves a change of use from retail to a community or leisure facility, the applicant should demonstrate that the proposed facility is meeting a need that is not currently being met. In this case, the new gym should either provide a service that is not presently available in Welshpool, or demonstrate that there is a level of demand greater than the capacity of existing providers and that the proposed facility is required to meet that additional demand.
Neither of these points has been demonstrated within the application. There is already an established gym directly opposite the application site, yet the application does not appear to provide evidence of unmet demand, insufficient existing capacity, or a specific need for an additional gym of the proposed scale. The fact that the premises opposite are incorrectly identified as a cinema is therefore relevant, but the more significant concern is that the application does not adequately demonstrate that the requirements of Policy C1 in respect of the need for additional indoor recreation provision have been met.
The applicant should therefore be required to provide robust evidence demonstrating the need for the proposed facility, including an assessment of existing gym provision, capacity and demand within Welshpool, before the application can be considered to demonstrate compliance with Policy C1.
Number 4 Berriew Street is not the application building.
The Local Planning Authority should establish exactly which property, land and building are the subject of the application.
The application should provide a clear and accurate description of the development and its location. Powys states that the application process involves checking that the appropriate information has been submitted, and its planning system relies on the site address and plans to identify the development being assessed.
The Local Planning Authority should check:
the application site address;
the address stated on the application form;
the address used in the Design and Access Statement;
the address used in the Planning Statement;
the address on the existing/proposed plans; and
any parking arrangements relying on neighbouring land.
RESOLVED
To respond to the planning authority in respect of P/26/0711/ADV with the above response and comments.
Accompanying Documents: