An exciting proposal has been submitted to the Isle of Wight Council which would see a new gym emerge at the former premises of York Avenue Garage in East Cowes.
The building previously had retrospective planning permission granted in February 2022 after converting the former garage during the Covid pandemic into a barbers, tattoo studios and coffee shop, as previously reported by Island Echo. At the time, they retained some of the remaining garage workshop space and used some of it as an MOT station.
Now, however, this ‘underutilised’ space is set to be transformed into a gym as well as slightly increasing the size of the coffee shop floor space and providing improved WC facilities.
According to the planning documents, they ‘aim to run small group personal training sessions where they focus on functional movements to help bring better quality of life to mixed ability and age groups. From educating people looking to improve their health and fitness to those individuals who are of more advanced abilities who are looking to get the most out of their training.’
They go on to say that ‘each class/session will be capped at 16 to ensure quality in the sessions and will last for 60minutes focusing on a variety of equipment including traditional barbell weightlifting, functional movements, bodyweight and gymnastic elements and cardiovascular equipment such as rowing and exercise bikes.”
According to the plans they also hope ‘to run morning classes starting at 06:30 for the local fitness community to have the chance to work out and improve their fitness before rush hour traffic, school drop off etc. and a 10:00 class for the community members who have a more flexible schedule and a later start.’
The documents also say:
‘We will also be looking to put classes on in the evening from 16:30. These are to include kids classes, elderly classes and classes for those who otherwise may be put off or not have the opportunity due to disabilities. We want to provide inclusive opportunities to work out, and for people to have fun in the process, building up community and to have people belong to something great that’s going to benefit them mentally and physically, including pre and post-natal classes.”
“Having the café next door is fantastic to continue with the community hub feel as many members will have food/drinks before or after sessions, and once a month/quarter we plan to run a free introductory session for people in the community to come and meet us and try some classes and enjoy the adjoining businesses to really bring awareness to the area.”
“We would also like to give personal trainers the opportunity to use the space to deliver more personalised 1-2-1 sessions to help build others up. This will either be their own clients or members of our studio. As a result, we are looking to build in 2-3 part time job roles teaching fitness classes, whilst also employing 3 to4 personal trainers to run private 1-2-1 client sessions. To start with we will be doing the majority of classes ourselves whilst we build our membership base.”
“We strive to create an ambience as opposed to a loud or noisy gym, due to the nature of our training method being respectful and educational, not about all guns blazing. We aim to provide work experience for those in the college and sixth forms who have an interest in fitness and training as their passion, to be able to mentor them and give them advice and opportunities along the way.”
You can study the planning application documents in full here and comments can be made until 30th June.
What a good idea; that would be an excellent use of space. I would certainly use a gym with that sor
What a good idea. That would be an excellent use of the space
Can’t wait to join this exciting new venture. What an incredible mix of abilities being made available. I for one would look for great advice linking a level of training to suit my needs and not a mixture of mine and someone else needs.