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Aston Villa have submitted a planning application to extend their training ground facilities and ‘meet the ever-growing needs of their squad’.Bodymoor Heath’s gymnasium facilities are said to be “insufficiently large” and as such the club is planning an extension to improve the gym and sports science area.They have applied to North Warwickshire Borough Council for planning permission on a 1,190 sq.m gym building with a first floor of 570sq.m.The current building including the indoor pitch is 7,000 sq m so the extension to the building is about 17 per cent.Simon Chadwick, director of wyg, said: “The club is carrying out a review of its training activities both for the professional squad and its academy – particularly on the context of the impact caused by the decision to route the HS2 railway immediately to the north of Bodymoor Heath.“Whilst those considerations will continue to take place, the club has identified that the existing gymnasium facilities in the main building granted permission on the site in 2002 have now, with the passage of time, proved to be insufficiently large to cope with the requirements of the professional squad and academy.“It is regularly overcrowded and there can be difficulties in managing the facility where young academy students might be using equipment alongside adults. The extension of the provision of a new larger gymnasium is required to meet the ever growing needs of the professional squad. Since 2002 the advancements in sports science and indoor training have been very significant.”The site is green belt land however Mr Chadwick says: “Any green belt harm is very small, mainly relating to the increased footprint of the building.“It is clear that the facilities being proposed are for outdoor sport – albeit a particularly high level of outdoor sport – and that the facilities will preserve the openness of the green belt. The additional built footprint of the building compared to the overall size of the training ground is very small.“As far as any other harm is concerned this would normally relate to issues such as visual impact; ecology; traffic etc. Given where the main Bodymoor Heath training ground is located, it is screened from long distance views by mature trees. There are no ecological or technical constraints to the development. So, again, the level of any other harm would be minimal.“Other considerations which could outweigh the harm would relate to the benefits of providing more up to date and larger facilities for the training ground in the interests of elite sport – specifically the need to provide high quality training facilities for Aston Villa given its aspiration to return to the Premier League and compete with similarly high profile football clubs in England and in Europe.“A number of leading professional clubs who obtained permission for their training centres at a similar time have had to seek to extend those facilities including providing additional gymnasium space.”A public consultation, ending on May 16, is open online searching for reference number PAP/2019/0181
particularly on the context of the impact caused by the decision to route the HS2 railway immediately to the north of Bodymoor Heath.
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Topic: Bodymoor Heath - Now the Recon Training Complex (Read 18770 times)
