A HEALTH club with a swimming pool could be the latest addition to the former Brockhall Hospital development.

Property tycoon Gerald Hitman has applied to Ribble Valley Borough Council for permission to convert the former administration building into a health and leisure club.

If the plans are given the green light, the 1,494 square metres of floorspace will be extended to 2,130 to enable two squash courts to be built. The health centre will also boast a 18m by 8.5m pool with adjacent children's pool and two spas, snooker room, gymnasium/dance studio, sauna, steam room, changing rooms and bar.

Mr Hitman declined to comment on his plans and it is unclear whether the club will be exclusive to residents of the Brockhall development or for general public use.

Billington and Langho parish council chairman Graham Sowter said: "From what I understand the leisure centre will re-use the existing building and anything that re-uses that building is to be welcomed because architecturally it has a lot going for it. I hope any ancillary developments will be sympathetic.

"Personally I have reservations that it might be too exclusive but anything that replaces facilities and builds the community is to be welcomed." The former hospital site has been developed into an extensive housing estate - which had previously been slammed as a "ghetto of executive houses" - and at the height of their protests residents of Billington and Langho accused Mr Hitman of trying to avoid building community facilities.

In June last year, the developer appealed against the council's decision to refuse plans to reduce the number of houses at the Brockhall development from 400 to 345 and the amount of employment space from 900,000 sq ft to 120,000.

Councillors gave the go-ahead to a revised plan for 233 detached four and five-bedroomed houses and 112,000 sq ft of employment space in a bid to keep a tight hold on the development.

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