The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Council jumps to approve Ryze plans for Soccer World
planning: Trampoline activity centre will be built on site at Old Glamis Road
Councillors have approved plans to build the city’s first trampoline park at an indoor football centre.
Four five-a-side pitches at Soccer World will make way for Dundee’s new, purpose-built trampoline activity centre on Old Glamis Road, after the city council’s development management committee voted in favour of company Ryze’s revised application.
An online and entirely unfounded furore, which saw elected members accused of dodgy “backdoor” dealings and allegations of “brown envelope” payments, clouded prior proposals to build the centre in Claverhouse industrial estate.
The previous application had failed to meet with local development plan conditions and were bounced back by council officers without being heard in a public council committee meeting.
Councillors decided to bring the plans before the committee last night, on the understanding it would show residents in the city all was above board.
Development management committee convener Will Dawson said it had been disheartening to be accused of not looking out for the city’s children following the initial refusal of permission.
He said: “We have set policies in place which direct and advise where applications are acceptable.
“The original application, which was received and refused, was very much in the wrong place.
“The company had applied to build the centre in an area which was very much set aside for businesses and industrial use and had poor public transport links.
“In this instance officers worked with the applicant to try and find a good place for it to be located.
“The proposal which was approved on Monday night was very much at the right time and in the right place and meets with local development plan and national planning policies. It was a sensible application in a sensible location.
“Some of the comments suggesting Dundee was closed for business or that the council was not looking out for the city’s children certainly were not true.
“The city’s planners are there to work with applicants in order to try and make it work.
“It is disheartening being accused of taking backhanders, it is just simply not the case.
“It felt important to bring this application before the committee as it gave a chance for the public to see what goes on at a development management decision.”
Four of the eight pitches at the five-aside football centre will make way for the Ryze trampoline park, the first of its kind in Dundee.
It is hoped the centre could bring up to 50 jobs to the city.