‘Last space’ on Preston's Queens Shopping Park to be filled 10 years after expansion began

It is a decade since the first units began to spring up as part of an expansion of Queens Shopping Park, which is now home to outlets including Aldi, Home Bargains and a recently-opened Greggs drive-thru.

As part of the incremental development of the site - off the A59 Stanley Street - an application for the construction of two retail premises was lodged back in 2018 and later given the green light by Preston City Council.

One of the pair subsequently opened as a branch of The Food Warehouse by Iceland, but the second - on a neighbouring parcel of land in the far north-western corner of the park - was never built.

Applicant Brookhouse (Preston) Limited earlier this year applied for permission to change the use of that building - when completed - to a fitness facility. The firm said it would be occupied by The Gym Group, which runs round-the-clock, no-contract gyms across the country.

The city council has said it has no objection to the switch, because of a change to planning rules since the original permission was granted. At that point, retail outlets and gyms were in different planning use categories - but they have since been brought under the same umbrella and explicit approval is no longer required to change from one approved use to the other.

The authority has therefore granted an amendment to the description of the development. However, it has yet to decide whether also to approve requested changes to the size and shape of the would-be gym building - including a near 200-square-metre increase in floorspace and a new car park layout to accommodate the expansion. That will be determined as part of a separate application still under consideration.

Meanwhile, work on a commercial building which was also approved when the two retail spaces were originally given the nod - the exact nature of which remains unspecified - is expected to begin this year, according to planning agent Cassidy + Ashton.