Cheshire East serves up Crewe padel approval

A former bowls club next to Grand Junction Retail Park will be transformed in a 25,000 sq ft project, bringing five courts and a clubhouse to the site.

The brownfield proposals were lodged by planning advisor Savills inb spring for the project, on behalf of UBS Triton Property Fund vehicles, for the redevelopment of the brownfield site.

As set out then, the land has been closed off to the public since the Abb Bowling Club’s clubhouse was pulled down in 2012.

Cheshire East planning officers have now issued a decision notice giving the go-ahead for the project, with conditions attached.

Although members of Crewe Town Council registered concerns that the project could negatively impact existing traffic issues within the retail park site and surrounds, adding that the pathway access proposed appears “insufficient and potentially unsafe” and that the out of town provision of courts could be detrimental to the town centre, those issues were not enough to derail the scheme.

Savills leads the professional team. Credit: planning documents

In the view of officers, this is a low-impact proposal that would bring back to use a currently derelict site.

Facilities at the site would be in shipping containers, with five padel courts in artificial blue grass caged with Perspex and metallic mesh, with a covered structure comprising of green and grey structural supports with Perspex inserts.

The site is south of Grand Junction, and is largely hidden from wider views by existing commercial buildings to the north, and while it will be visible from the railway, this would only be against a commercial backdrop.

All scheme documents can be seen on CEC’s planning portal, reference 26/1148/FUL.