First Pure Gym in Cumbria may open in Kendal under new plans

Applicant Cox Motor Group has submitted a change of use planning application to Westmorland and Furness Council for a site in Kendal. This would see some of the car workshops on the site becoming a gym with associated elevation amendments and site works. 

The 'redundant' workshops on the site that could become Cumbria's first PureGym (Image: Cox Motor Group (Westmorland and Furness Council planning))

Currently the building, part of the curtilage of Kendal Motor Village on Queen Katherine Avenue, has car workshops and MOT facilities described as 'redundant' in the design and access statement. 

"Some of the workshop facilities have moved to the new building recently constructed to the southern part of the site," the statement adds. 

Already the site has seen change as the front part of the building has been opened as a Greggs. 

The site would be accessed from Queen Katherine Avenue and a via a new pedestrian access from Appleby Road that was formed as part of the Greggs approval. 

According to the documents, the gross internal ground floor area of the workshop is 477sq metres, which would be change into the gym. 

The proposed tenant is PureGym, the documents state. The company has around 370 gyms nationwide, with its headquarters in Leeds. 

Part of the site has already become a Greggs (Image: Cox Motor Group (Westmorland and Furness Council planning))

In April the company announced that it was planning to keep expanding after opening 40 new gyms over the past year. 

The leisure brand revealed that revenues grew 15 per cent  in 2023 compared with the previous year to £549 million, and that it saw an 11 per cent increase in membership across the business. 

Chief executive Humphrey Cobbold told PA that it had seen a particularly strong performance from its new gyms in recent months, giving it confidence in its continued expansion programme. 

“We have found with our new sites that there are still plenty of pools of latent demand, and those have been particularly robust,” he said.

“In these locations where we haven’t been before we have seen really good pockets of demand.”