Cheshire West approved a private wellness centre with a hydrotherapy pool and gym at 1 Lakeside on 13 August, beside an approved mental health hospital.
A private healthcare and wellness centre with a hydrotherapy pool, a gym and treatment rooms has been approved at Chester Business Park. Cheshire West and Chester Council issued the decision on Thursday 13 August 2026 under reference 26/00309/FUL.
It sits in the same building as the mental health hospital the council permitted in February, and the two schemes now overlap on paper. A second application to redraw the hospital’s floor plans is still undecided.
What has been approved
The permission covers 2,177 square metres of the ground floor at 1 Lakeside, a two-storey office building off Herons Way, east of Wrexham Road. The officer’s delegated report sets out what the floor plans show:
- assessment and treatment rooms
- a hydrotherapy pool
- gym and studio space
- an ancillary café with an outdoor terrace
- replacement windows to the existing building
A separate health assessment and blood lab will run in conjunction with the centre from an adjoining building. The officer records that roughly 22 full-time equivalent jobs would be created, and that the building’s existing IT and archive facility would be retained.
Opening hours are fixed in the application: 8am to 6pm on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, 8am to 8pm on Wednesday and Thursday, 8am to 3pm on Saturday, and closed on Sunday.
The applicant’s own operator statement is blunt that this is not a gym anyone can join. All services are private and not NHS services, appointments are pre-booked only, and gym and hydrotherapy pool access is “restricted exclusively to clients undertaking private physiotherapy treatment programmes following assessment”. Pilates, reformer and stretch classes are bookable in advance.
A building that was never finished
The scale of what is empty at 1 Lakeside is the part most people will not know. The officer’s report puts the whole building at about 12,541 square metres, of which roughly 5,574 square metres has never been fitted out at all.
The building was put up for Bank of America around 2004. MBNA, then a Bank of America subsidiary, used the ground floor as a secure printing, processing and distribution facility. The rest of the first floor was never fitted out and has stood empty since.
Where the mental health hospital fits in
In February the council granted 24/00096/FUL, a part change of use of the same building to a mental health care facility, with replacement windows, solar panels and electric vehicle charging points. The decision notice was issued on 5 February 2026 to Cygnet Health Care Ltd.
That permission carries two conditions worth knowing about:
- It is personal to Cygnet. If Cygnet stops occupying the premises, the use has to stop and the land reverts to its previous lawful use.
- A management plan covering hours of use, staffing, supervision, access control, a complaints procedure, lighting, CCTV and emergency procedures must be approved before the facility opens.
The wellness centre creates a problem for those approved drawings. The officer’s report states that the wellness centre floor plan “over-laps with the approved ground floor training ward”. A separate application, 26/00690/S73, was lodged on 3 March to vary the approved plans condition. The register shows it is still awaiting decision.
The objection, and a bigger argument behind it
One letter of representation was received, submitted on behalf of the Chester Business Park Management Company. According to the officer’s report it raised concerns that the use was not in keeping with the primary function of the business park, about the potential introduction of an Article 4 Direction, and about the consultation process.
That reference is not incidental. The council has since made Article 4 Directions covering Chester Business Park and two other employment areas, and comments on them close next month. We have covered that separately in the council’s move to remove office-to-flat conversion rights.
The site sits outside the Chester settlement boundary, in countryside and Green Belt. The officer concluded the change of use would not be inappropriate development in the Green Belt, because it reuses an existing permanent building without disproportionate additions.
Permission is granted subject to a Deed of Variation to the original legal agreements from 2003 and 2005, which tied the four Lakeside buildings to business use with floorspace limits. If the healthcare use ever ceases, that original restriction is re-imposed.
Other conditions require two bat boxes and two bird boxes before first use, precautionary working methods for badgers, reptiles, hedgehogs, otters and water voles, a non-licensed method statement for great crested newts, and biodiversity net gain of more than 10%.
What it means for you
Nothing changes for anyone using the business park today. There is no construction of a new building, only a fit-out and a small outdoor terrace, and the council found the existing 385-space car park sufficient for the proposed and existing uses.
If you work on the park, the practical point is the traffic pattern rather than the volume. Two health facilities operating on appointment times will spread arrivals differently from an office. The Wrexham Road park and ride sits directly across the A483, and the site is on bus routes to Chester and Wrexham, which the officer treated as a point in the scheme’s favour.
If you want to be a client, note the access rules: this is private treatment by referral and assessment, not a health club with memberships.
If you have a view on what Chester Business Park should be used for, the Article 4 consultation is the place to put it, and it closes at 5pm on Friday 18 September. You can also track new applications on our Chester planning news page.
Sources
- Application 26/00309/FUL, Cheshire West and Chester planning register: approved, decision issued 13 August 2026
- Delegated officer report, 26/00309/FUL (floorspace, jobs, objection, conditions, Green Belt assessment)
- Decision notice, 26/00309/FUL
- Operator statement in support (opening hours, access control, private-only services)
- Application 24/00096/FUL and its decision notice (Cygnet Health Care Ltd, 5 February 2026)
- Application 26/00690/S73 (variation of approved plans, awaiting decision)
Anyone aggrieved by a planning decision can appeal to the Secretary of State under section 78 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, within six months of the date of the notice.
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