AN extra 30 parking spaces will be created at Bradford’s Sedbergh Leisure Centre.

The leisure centre, off Huddersfield Road, opened in late 2019 as a replacement to the Richard Dunn Centre.

However, due to the Covid Pandemic it has been shut as a leisure centre for much of the time since - instead operating as a Covid response hub.

Bradford Council recently revealed that it planned to tweak the plans for the site - adding an extra car park due to the centre proving “extremely popular.”The 30 space car park extension will be built on an area previously set aside as a grass training grid.

In its first months of opening the leisure centre, which includes a pool, gym and other indoor sports facilities, proved popular. 

The number of people registered to use the Council run gym leaped from 1,700 at the Richard Dunn Centre to approximately 3,700 at Sedbergh.

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Earlier this year Bradford Council submitted an amendment to its 2017 planning permission for the site - which would allow it to build an extra 30 parking spaces.

The site currently has 165 parking spaces. When the initial planning application was submitted for the site, highways officers had questioned whether this was an adequate number of spaces considering the size of the site. They had suggested 235 spaces be provided on site.

Approving the amendment to create the extra spaces this week, planning officers said; "The proposal will not have a detrimental impact on the adjacent residential properties and should improve the situation for the residents as it will provide additional car parking within the site and reduce the amount of on-street parking from visitors to the facility."

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A council spokesperson said, ‘Sedbergh Sport and Leisure Centre has proved to be extremely popular with the public since it opened in 2019.

"The Council has decided to extend the parking provision for the benefit of customers and to prevent overspill parking affecting nearby residents.’