{"id":430420,"date":"2026-02-17T13:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T13:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/430420\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T13:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T13:03:09","slug":"indoor-cricket-facility-clears-planning-boundary-rope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/430420\/","title":{"rendered":"Indoor cricket facility clears planning boundary rope"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n HiTZ Cricket will be allowed to use a vacant ground floor office unit on the Centenary Quay site in Woolston.\n<\/p>\n

\n The scheme overcame objections, including from residents of the 110-flat Azera block, to be granted by members of Southampton City Council\u2019s planning and rights of way panel.\n<\/p>\n

\n Cllr Rob Harwood said he welcomed any addition to the amenity provided at Centenary Quay.\n<\/p>\n

\n Cllr Harwood said: \u201cCentenary Quay on the whole has failed to deliver what it promised the residents of Woolston before it was built.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThat was a lot of social activity, a lot of outlets, a lot of things going on at ground level.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n The application went before the panel after receiving more than 20 objections.\n<\/p>\n

\n Azera resident Sarah Ryles said objections centred around common themes, including noise, the proposed operating hours and waste collection.\n<\/p>\n

\n Originally the application sought 24-hour use before reducing its request to 6am to midnight.\n<\/p>\n

\n Ms Ryles said: \u201cThe business started internal works months ago before the planning permission was even applied for and they have also been advertising Azera as their coming soon location since long before Christmas.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n She added: \u201cHow is it appropriate to be advertising memberships online when a planning decision hasn\u2019t even been reached yet?\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Councillors were told HiTZ acquired the unit last year and began fitout work after receiving professional advice from a commercial agent.\n<\/p>\n

\n The business was not aware of a condition attached to a previous planning consent which restructured the use of the unit.\n<\/p>\n

\n Following an enforcement email from the council in October, all work on site stopped and HiTZ instructed Savills to submit a change of use application.\n<\/p>\n

\n Jim Beavan, planning agent from Savills, said no further fitout work was undertaken pending the outcome of the panel meeting but any advertisement should also have been removed.\n<\/p>\n

\n Sam Burge, HiTZ chief operating officer, said: \u201cThe proposed use is an indoor cricket<\/a> training facility designed for individual or small group coaching sessions rather than competitive matches or large gatherings.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n He said no alcohol is served or permitted on site.\n<\/p>\n

\n Mr Burge added: \u201cThe proposed Southampton site would provide a year-round facility that supports grassroots participation in the sport.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cSouthampton and the surrounding areas are home to a diverse and engaged cricket community and we see clear demand for an indoor training option that allows players to train consistently regardless of weather or season.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n The panel was told the early morning and late evening hours were \u201cvitally important\u201d to attracting people to use the facility before and after work.\n<\/p>\n

\n However, councillors were concerned about the impact on residents and reduced the hours to 7am to 11pm.\n<\/p>\n

\n Members of the panel were also worried about the lack of on-site staff presence, with users pre-booking and accessing the facility through a QR code.\n<\/p>\n

\n Cllr Sarah Powell-Vaughan said: \u201cI don\u2019t like the idea that nobody is going to be on site.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think that\u2019s a very dangerous mix when you\u2019ve got people that you\u2019ve not necessarily met, you don\u2019t know what they\u2019re going to be like.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey know that nobody\u2019s on site, so they know they don\u2019t have to behave and when you are dealing with people, people always surprise you and generally not in the best way.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n The approved change of use is restricted to an indoor cricket facility only.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HiTZ Cricket will be allowed to use a vacant ground floor office unit on the Centenary Quay site…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-430420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}