Planning application submitted for big improvements
A junior football club in Timperley, soon to be celebrating its 50th anniversary, wants to refurbish its ageing club house so it can host family events and children’s parties.
A planning application has been submitted by the Unicorn Athletic club at Sylvan Avenue, Smiths Field to Trafford’s planning team.
The FA two-star accredited club is run by volunteers whose coaches are qualified, all with first-aid training and enhanced DBS checks, their application says.
Unicorn JFC will celebrate 50 years of grass-roots football in 2027 and wants to engage in a ‘period of wide-scale modernisation’.
A design and access statement submitted on the cub’s behalf by Reid Design Ltd says the existing club house is a single-storey building with no heating or hot water.
Its electrics need updating, and the interior needs repairs and decoration.
“The layout is impractical and the space available is not conducive to the needs of a contemporary, forward-thinking, grass-roots football club,” it says.
“The club house refurbishment and new facilities have been designed with their young people, who make up 100 per cent of their membership, in mind and are the key to the club’s future success.”
The club house was originally built in the 1970s and later extended to provide storage.
Plans include replacing the current changing rooms with male and female toilets, each with a changing cubicle and lockers for valuables.
“By expanding their existing cafe offering and providing an internal multi-functional space, they will be able to offer parents and children a place to meet and socialise before and after football,” the statement says.
“The community room will enable the club to hold family events, club and league events, meetings, holiday clubs, football camps, children’s parties and football training events and CPD (continuing professional development) courses for club coaches.”
It said the club also seeks to open the facility to the community by offering to hire the club room for events and meetings to local businesses and community groups.
If approved, the building’s existing footprint will remain, but with new openings and internal alterations, mainly focused on the side of the structure facing some allotments.
There will be three new openings on the south west of the site, two of which will be used to create a fire escape.
Three sun tunnels will also be installed to provide more natural light.
As part of the works, the club would look to thermally upgrade the existing elements by introducing internal wall insulation. The aim would be to make the building more energy efficient and better for the environment.