PLANS have been drawn up for the further redevelopment of the old Scout Dyke centre in Penistone - before the most recent round of changes have even been introduced.
However, the application to Barnsley Council asks for consent to be granted for one development which has been made without permission - an extension to a quad bike track.
That element of the planning application is retrospective - meaning the council is being asked to accept something which is already in place - but the rest of the application is a conventional request, to replace the existing reception building.
The site, now called the Peak Venture centre, is operated by a company called Kingswood, though the site is leased from Barnsley Council, and is used to provide accommodation for school children, mainly from primaries, on visits between two and five days.
The company was granted permission last year to introduce new pods and lodges on the site to provide modern accommodation for visitors, though those developments have yet to happen.
Proposals for the site are the latest in what Kingswood describe as 11 years of improvements to the site.
The reception building and staff room the company wants to replace is in a car park to the rear of the permanent building on the site, with containers used to house those facilities.
They have a limited life span because the containers were installed only on a temporary planning approval, which expires later this year.
Accommodation is needed for the company to operate and the proposal is for a new reception building covering a plot of nine metres by six metres and a staff room of nine metres by three metres.
The retrospective part of the application is for the quad bike extension, covering a site of 24 metres by eight metres, along with the relocation of a container used to store quads, along with the installation of a second.
To complete the development, a new garage would also be created to store maintenance equipment.
Planners have been told in documents submitted by Kingswood that: “The proposed development will help to sustain the future of the centre for Kingswood, whilst contributing to the economy of the local area through additional jobs created.”
The centre can accommodate up to 200 visitors at any one time and is used to provide the ‘adventure’ phase of the National Citizenship Service which encourages good behaviour as children develop towards adulthood.
Work on the quad bike course, which is now being offered up as a planning application, took place before May last year.
According to Kingswood, “a number of trees/shrubs/saplings (mainly willow and sycamore) were removed to allow the works to take place.
“Prior to completing this work, Kingswood realised that planning permission was required so further work was brought to a halt, pending receipt of necessary consents.”
New buildings on the site would be of modular construction, meaning the project could be completed within about four weeks, if planning permission is granted.
Neighbours living alongside the Peak Venture centre have been consulted about the proposals and none have raised objections, with some expressing enthusiasm about the prospect of having the temporary containers replaced with new buildings.
It is anticipated the work would be done in the spring of this year.
