Bounce park plan for city

PLANS for a trampoline park at Mercury Place in Leicester could create up to 50 jobs.

The landmark building, in St George’s Way, is used as office space by a number of firms but there are plans to convert the former print rooms into a leisure facility.

Our sister paper the Leicester Mercury used to operate from the building until recently.

The building’s owners, the Harmsworth Pension Fund Trustees, part of the Daily Mail publishing group, have been granted permission by Leicester City Council for a series of changes including rearranging a service yard behind the premises to create a further 39 parking spaces.

The trustees also want to turn the lawn in front of the building into a 30-space car park.

The council raised concerns about the loss of the green space within the St George’s Conservation area but the applicants said they would landscape the patch to reduce the impact.

Planning documents show topiary cones could be used to help disguise the loss of the lawn.

The building, still called Mercury Place, will get a new entrance on the southern wing.

Jump Arena, which has trampoline parks in Luton and Leeds, has been lined up to run the new attraction at the 50-year-old former Mercury headquarters.

Between 40 and 50 jobs are expected to be created by the new business in the print hall, which was decommissioned eight years ago.

A spokesman for the trustees said: “The proposed development would materially improve the viability of the city centre by re-using a vacant (part of ) a building to provide new economic development.”