Caravan storage site could be transformed into gym to train Olympic weightlifters

A Rhuddlan static caravan storage site could soon be converted into a gym training future Olympians.

Alex Mooney, of Hillside, St Asaph, has applied to Denbighshire County Council to convert the Old Water Works, Unit 3 on Abergele Road, into a gym.

Rhuddlan Town Council has no objections to the plans.

In his supporting statement to Denbighshire’s planning department, Mr Mooney of St Asaph-based Paragon Fitness explained his reasons for wanting to convert the site for leisure.

“Fitness HQ(NW) Ltd, trading as Paragon Fitness, has been operating in St Asaph, Denbighshire, since 2017, providing fitness and health and wellbeing services to the local community,” he wrote.

“We have grown over the past years and now need to relocate to larger, more suitable premises in Rhuddlan.

“The new premises is not only more suitable in size and design but it’s further from residential properties, which reduces the possibility of noise complaints.

“It has ample off-street parking, whichreduces the requirement for our patrons’ parking on Lower Denbigh Road, therefore reducing congestion on the main road.

“We have also taken the decision to move to a class-based gym which removes the numbers of vehicles entering and exiting the premises throughout the day.”

If given the go-ahead, the gym will open 6 am – 9 pm Monday to Friday and 8 am – 5 pm on Saturday and Sundays – and will also offer Olympic weightlifting courses.

“The weekend times would not necessarily mean the gym is open to members of the public until 5 pm as we are also running Olympic

Weightlifting courses and closed training sessions for athletes on behalf of Weightlifting Wales, athletes from aged 14 years who aim to represent the country in the Commonwealth and Olympic games.

“We are also providing British Weightlifting courses, which are both classroom and gym-based courses to qualify people to train weightlifting for Weightlifting Wales.

“These courses run Saturday and Sunday from 9 am to 5 pm as students are only able to attend weekend courses, due to full-time work commitments.”
The planning application will be debated at a future Denbighshire County Council planning committee meeting.

By Richard Evans – Local Democracy Reporter