Sports plan drawn up for former Mothercare and Argos sites near Crystal Peaks, Sheffield
Plans have been drawn up to transform two former Sheffield shops into a new sports venue.
The former Mothercare and Argos stores on the Drakehouse Retail Park, near Beighton, in Sheffield, both closed some time ago.
But now plans have been drawn up which would see them become yet another Sheffield venue for the growing sport of padel.
Other commercial uses of buildings in the area include various retail shops, a gym, cafés and restaurants.
The company behind the plan is now asking Sheffield Council to confirm it does not have to change the planning permission to open a padel centre.
Vanessa Gordon of the developer’s agent, Tetra Tech Planning, said in a statement sent to Sheffield Council’s planning department: “This application seeks to certify that the proposed change of use from retail use to an indoor sports and leisure use as a padel centre, as well as the associated internal amalgamation of the two identified units, would be lawful, and does not require planning permission.”
It would see internal partition walls removed in the buildings.
Albany Courtyard Investments Limited ‘s planning application stated in their application that last time the buildings were used, they were occupied by retailers Mothercare and Argos.
They added: “The units are currently vacant, but the applicant has been marketing the site for prospective new occupants during the vacancy period.”
They don’t think they need to change the planning permission for the site.
Sheffield has seen a rush of recent planning applications for padel venues, as the popularity of the sport surges.
Padel is a racket sport, played with a more solid racket than tennis.
The game uses the same scoring conventions a tennis but is played on courts that are slightly smaller, as are the balls that are used.
The courts are enclosed and, like in squash, players can bounce the ball off the walls.
According to the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) there were around 400,000 people that played padel in the UK last year, which is a huge increase on the estimated figures of 15,000 just six years earlier in 2019.