Dual Gym and Night Club Use Approved by Eastbourne
Planning permission from Eastbourne Borough Council for a dual sui generis gym and night club use, using a Class V GPDO strategy to preserve the existing night club consent whilst enabling a daytime gym operator to use the same premises interchangeably for ten years.
PLANNING APPROVALSEASTBOURNEEAST SUSSEX
Andrew Ransome
7/5/20262 min read
In 2020, I secured planning permission from Eastbourne Borough Council for a dual sui generis gym and night club use, enabling a gym and personal training operator to use premises that already held a night club consent.
Rather than abandoning the existing night club permission, a Class V General Permitted Development Order strategy was identified that allowed both uses to operate interchangeably for ten years — a creative solution that preserved commercial flexibility for the client.
Dual Night Club and Gym Use in Eastbourne
I secured planning permission from Eastbourne Borough Council for the dual use of premises as both a gym and a night club — both sui generis uses — within Eastbourne town centre.
The existing property held extant planning permission for a night club, but the client had identified demand from a gym and personal training operator who wished to use the space during daytime hours.
The challenge was to enable the gym use without surrendering the valuable existing night club consent.
The solution identified was a Class V application under the General Permitted Development Order, which allows a temporary change of use — where specified use classes are involved — to revert to the previous use.
By framing the application to apply Class V principles to this specific scenario, it was possible to argue for a dual-use planning permission that allowed the gym and the night club to be used interchangeably for a ten-year period.
This gave the client maximum commercial flexibility: either use could operate without the need for a further planning application, and neither existing consent was put at risk.
The planning case demonstrated that both uses were acceptable in principle in this town centre location — the site's position within Eastbourne town centre, with excellent public transport accessibility, made it a genuinely sustainable location for both a daytime gym and an evening leisure venue.
Technical assessments confirmed that no constraints — in terms of noise, amenity or highway impact — would prevent either use from being carried out without harm to neighbouring occupiers or the surrounding area.
Eastbourne Borough Council granted the dual-use permission, providing the client with a degree of planning flexibility that a conventional single-use application could not have achieved.
Planning Application Advice
If you need to manage multiple planning uses on the same premises, or want to protect an existing consent whilst enabling a new use, creative use of the GPDO can sometimes provide a solution. Contact me to discuss your project.
Andrew Ransome MRTPI - Email: andrew@andrewransome.co.uk
About me
Andrew Ransome is a Planning Director and a Chartered Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), with more than two decades of experience in town planning.
He specialises in delivering strategic planning solutions for complex developments across both rural and urban environments, helping clients navigate planning challenges and unlock development opportunities. Connect with Andrew on Linkedin.
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Get in touch for planning advice: Email: andrew@andrewransome.co.uk
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