PLANS have been unveiled for a martial arts school at the home of a former corner shop.

The vacant Pound Plus Store in Church Street West could be used as a combat training school for martial arts, jiu jitsu, kickboxing and wrestling.

Mundo Martial Arts, which already runs a centre in Radcliffe, has applied for a change of use at the premises in order to move location.

Owner and head coach Will Burke wrote in an application to Bury Council: "I have been trading in Radcliffe at another location for three years. I employ a cleaner and three coaches, myself included.

"Church Street West is one of the main roads leading into the centre of Radcliffe and currently has a number of day traders and some evening trading hot food shops.

"There are two large and one small car park behind the row of units. There are some residential units in the area.

"My main trading hours are 5pm to 8.15pm, when most of the businesses have closed and the car parks are unused, so I do not expect there to be any impact on traffic.

"Our previous location was in a residential area, and we never had any complaints regarding noise, so I do not see an issue with noise impact.

"I am happy to provide a test or a reference from previous neighbours to demonstrate this.

"I don't propose any changes to the building. There would be no impact on other businesses in the area in terms of competition."

Mr Burke has submitted an application to Bury Council to change the use of units 39-41 Church Street West from category A1 — retail shop — to D2, leisure use.

If approved, the martial arts school would adopt a space measuring 84.27sqm.

He currently operates Mundo Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) Gym, which was founded in July 2015, and is based on the second floor of Windley Works in Wolsey Street, Radcliffe.

To view the plans, search application 63899 at https://planning.bury.gov.uk/online-applications/.