£2m sports hub approved in Glastonbury
Work to deliver the project will get going in early 2023
Work to deliver a new £2m sports hub in a Somerset town will begin early in the new year after plans were approved.
Glastonbury was one of 101 towns across the UK – and one of only two in Somerset – which has received funding from the government’s towns fund, with £23.6m being provided for projects designed to enhance the town centre and improve the town’s fortunes.
Following the government’s approval of the town deal business cases in September, Mendip District Council submitted plans for the first of the 11 agreed projects – the extension of the Tor Sports & Leisure Centre on the A361 Street Road to create a new major leisure hub for the town.
The council’s planning board has now given these plans the green light, meaning initial work can begin in early-2023.
The project will see a one-and-a-half storey extension being built onto the existing clubhouse building to create a new multi-use sports hall.
The new ‘centre of excellence’ will offer opportunities for sports, training, education and health and well-being support, as well as being a place for people to meet and socialise.
The refurbishment will include a multi-use hall, a gym, changing rooms, showers and toilets (including an accessible changing places toilet), three treatment rooms, a meeting space, a storage room, a social area with a bar and separate kitchenette, and a remodelled reception space complete with a café.
The transformed facilities will be available for use by a range of local sports and clubs, including cricket, football, bowls, rounders and acrobatics, and will provide opportunities for local people of all ages and interests to improve their physical and mental health.
The planning board had originally been due to debate these proposals when it met in Shepton Mallet on Wednesday evening (December 14), but members instead voted by a margin of ten votes to none (with one abstention) to accept them without any formal debate.
The council’s planning policies allow its planning board to vote to accept an officer’s recommendation (whether to approve or refuse planning permission) without public discussion – even if the application in question is listed on the agenda for a public meeting.
A total of £2.09m will be invested in the project from the town deal grant, with a further £200,000 being provided through match funding.
In addition, the site will benefit from two other town deal projects, with new accessible pathways being installed as part of the Robert Richards initiative, and solar panels and electric vehicle charging points being provided through the Glastonbury Clean Energy project.
Councillor Liz Leyshon, who sits on the Glastonbury town deal board, said: “I am absolutely delighted to see the Glastonbury Community Sports and Leisure Hub planning application approved by the council.
“The project at Tor Leisure builds on the Quaker employment ethos of providing facilities to benefit the physical and mental health of the workforce.
“We have engaged with many of the sports groups and residents who have used the land and building at Tor Leisure for decades.
“Their feedback on the plans has been invaluable, enabling us to find the best affordable solution to a building that very much needs its refurbishment and extension, and to the land that needs to better provide for people with differing mobility.
“This bodes well for the rest of the town deal, and the start of a new era for Glastonbury.”
The leisure complex is the first of the 11 town deal project to secure planning permission, with decisions currently pending on three other applications – namely the revamping of the Baily’s Buildings, improvements to the tourism offer at Glastonbury Abbey, and the creation of a health and well-being hub at St Dunstan’s House on Magdalene Street.
Alex Dovey from Pick Everard, which is taking the leisure project forward, said: “Achieving planning permission takes this hugely beneficial community project one step forward to reality.
“The collaborative approach taken with the project team, user groups and members of the public have helped to achieve this key milestone, so I would like to thank all involved.
“We will now work closely with our delivery partners to finalise details to enable a start on site at the earliest opportunity and we look forward to opening the new facility as soon as possible.”
Enabling works on the site are expected to begin in the spring of 2023, in readiness for the demolition works.
For further information on the projects within the Glastonbury town deal, visit www.glastonburytowndeal.co.uk.