Fitness Factory from Google Maps

From Fitness Factory to housing: Outline plans for more housing in Newport

Plans have been submitted to the Isle of Wight council’s planning department seeking permission to demolish a fitness centre and replace with housing.

The application for outline permission would see the demolition of the buildings that house a gymnasium, exercise and dance studios, and being replaced with six two-storey two-bedroom houses and two two-bedroom maisonettes on three floors, with gardens and parking for eight cars.

Premises are now no longer fit for purpose
The applicant explains that the premises are now no longer fit for purpose, and require the expenditure of significant sums of money to keep the buildings watertight, and to bring them up to modern-day standards.

Outline plans for housing on Fitness Factory site - Clark Graham Architecture
© Clark Graham Architecture

The papers go on to explain,

“The development proposed is a mixture of terraced housing similar in scale to that existing in Portland Street, with one house having to be separated and detached, to provide an access which meets the requirements of the highway authority.

“On the corner of the existing access to the application property, at its junction with Portland Street, two three-storey maisonettes in a more contemporary style effectively link the two arms of terraced housing proposed, giving a nod both to the height of the existing buildings on site and to the significantly larger and taller existing dwellings lying immediately to the north of the site.”

Island Roads are recommending condition approval of the scheme.

View the plans
The public consultation runs until 11th March 2022, see the plans and comment on the council’s planning portal (22/00054/OUT).

Image: © Google Maps/Streetview