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Plans for housing discussed at former Lakeside Superbowl
Plans have been raised to turn the disused Newbury Leisure Park into housing.Members of Thatcham Town Council’s planning and highways committee heard a proposal by property investor Atul Hindocha on Tuesday to turn the former recreation centre in Lower Way – once home to Lakeside Superbowl – into 100 residential homes over an 18-month period.
Newbury Leisure Park was home to much missed Lakeside SuperbowlThe site, which is currently derelict, comprises the former leisure centre (37,000 sq ft), which housed a tenpin bowling club and children’s soft play area, and Moorstream Cottage (3,300 sq ft), plus 180 car parking spaces.Mr Hindocha, who has owned the site since 2012, claims it has no economic value and has been targeted with frequent acts of vandalism and antisocial behaviour while it has been on the market the past four years.He said: “We've had three businesses fail from 2012 to 2020.“It clearly cannot operate as a leisure [facility] anymore, so it does need to have a change of use.
Newbury Leisure Park is is currently derelict“In the last four years, only four large businesses have been interested in this site for leisure. “They’ve all had a look at it. They’ve all decided against it.“I think if we look at how much the neighbourhood would want on a residential road like that, I don't think they would want a 24-7 commercial set of operations.” Mr Hindocha explained three quarters of the property, which has a fishing lake to the rear, is within an area of low flood risk and should meet the criteria of a brownfield site (previously developed land), which must be at least 0.25 hectares (this site is 1.72 hectares) and be suitable and available to accommodate residential development.
Newbury Leisure Park has sat empty since 2021He stated he couldn’t understand why the settlement boundary has been extended to allow development of greenfield sites in North Thatcham and Cold Ash under the West Berkshire Local Plan, but not to a brownfield site here, which he argued could make an acceptable windfall site (sites which become available for development unexpectedly and are not included in the Local Plan).Committee chairman Simon Pike (Lib Dem, Thatcham West) said: “One of those modifications [to the Local Plan] is to extend the settlement boundary to include all of Colthrop Industrial Estate.“It seems to me somewhat illogical to extend to a non-residential site at this stage without doing the same for other sites which are adjacent to the existing settlement boundary.” Other councillors agreed.
Newbury Leisure Park was home to much missed Lakeside SuperbowlCouncillor Dave Lunn (Lib Dem, Thatcham North East) said: “I’m all in favour of brownfield sites being used. I’d rather see that than green land being used to build houses.”Councillor Mark Lillycrop (Lib Dem, Thatcham West) added: “The irony won’t be lost that at the other end of Lower Way, there is a development of very similar size on a greenfield site which some of us have tried to oppose for a long time.“In different circumstances, this site would potentially have made a much more appropriate site than the greenfield site that was chosen.”Mr Hindocha admitted the site could be mixed use to include leisure if WBC and whatever developer buys the land is open to this. He and the committee agreed the best way forward would be to apply for permission in principle, which is an alternative way of obtaining planning permission that is less focused on the technical details of a development at the first stage.
Newbury Leisure Park is is currently derelictLocal planning authorities can grant permission in principle to a site upon receiving a valid application or by entering a site in Part 2 of its Brownfield Land Register, which comprises sites it has agreed are suitable in principle for residential development.The bowling alley was officially opened in 1992 by former England footballer Emlyn Hughes.It was forced to shut in March 2020.It later reopened after the easing of lockdown restrictions but was forced to close for good by early 2021.What are your memories of Newbury Leisure Park? Send your stories and photos to newsdesk@newburynews.co.uk