Enfield Council's Planning Committee will next week be asked to approve a change of use application which will permit the operation of a gymnasium in part of the Palmers Green Library that was previously earmarked for use as a GP surgery.
The application to be considered at the meeting on 20th December has the following heading:
LOCATION: Southgate Town Hall, 251 Green Lanes, N13 4XE
PROPOSAL: Change of use of part of ground floor and basement from health centre / doctors surgery (use class D1) to gymnasium (use class D2)
The location cited here is rather misleading, as the application is concerned entirely with the Library building adjacent to the former Town Hall.
The proposed use of part of the building for a health centre formed part of the overall package involving sale of the town hall for conversion into flats and use of the money thus earned to pay for modernisation of the library. However, it appears that the Council were not able to find a GP practice who wished to move into the building. In December 2015 we learned that the Council had agreed to lease the accommodation to Fit4Less for a period of ten years at an annual rent of £90,000 (see this report from December 2015).
Enfield's planning officers are (unsurprisingly) recommending approval of the change of use, subject to various conditions, such as limits to the hours of operation of the gym and the development in advance of a parking plan. The parking plan is needed because the planning consent for the Town Hall sale and library modernisation only allocated 15 on-site parking spaces. There will therefore be considerable pressure on on-street parking in the vicinity.
