30-07-2024
Extra parking spaces planned for sports village
A thriving new community sports village is set to get additional parking to cater for its popularity.
The Common Edge Community Sports Village opened in June 2023 with 14 new grass football pitches, a full sized 3G football pitch, sports pavilion with changing rooms and community space, plus a floodlit grass rugby pitch and training area.
In its first year of operation, the sports village has proved exceptionally popular, with over 60,000 visits in its first year.
The 194-space sustainably drained car park and a new access road to the sports village off Common Edge Road was opened alongside the sports village, however during short periods between matches at weekends, extra spaces have been needed.
The plans would provide an additional 41 spaces as a temporary solution for the next three years, following which the new Enterprise Zone link road will be complete and a new solution found if still required. The spaces will be provided north of the current car park, on land which is not immediately needed for the construction of the new Enterprise Zone road.
The sports village was developed as phase one of the Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone, and improving the community sports facilities has allowed for 10.5 hectares of land at the former Collins Park site to be unlocked for commercial development.
George Cox and Sons is currently building a new road to connect Common Edge Road and Amy Johnson Way, as well as providing a second access into the sports village.
Support to build a new access road to the sports village, as well as the new access road to Amy Johnson Way, has been provided through a £7.5m grant from UK Government, while £250,000 of funding for the construction of the sports pavilion was granted by Football Foundation.
Lead design consultants for the Enterprise Zone Cassidy + Ashton worked on the plans for the sports pavilion and football pitches, as well as the car park extension.
The planning application can be found on Blackpool Council’s planning portal with the reference 24/0390.
For more information on the Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone, visit www.blackpoolez.com.
