Bowling alley could light up leisure centre
ANEW bowling alley could be coming to Stockport’s flagship Redrock leisure complex.
The Light Cinemas wants to open a 10-lane facility and retro arcade in vacant units next to its current home at the town centre attraction.
The £45m leisure and entertainment destination opened four years ago, and now hosts restaurants such as Zizzi and Pizza Express as well as a gym and on-site car park.
According to a planning document the bowling alley and arcade would form part of an extended foyer and cafe bar area on the ground floor.
It reads: “Existing partition walls are to be partly removed to accommodate 10 small bowling lanes into the combined units plus a retro arcade area.
“The bowling facility is to be accessed from the entrance lobby to the cinema with an internal breakthrough entranceway. This adds to the amenities of the cinema and forms part of the foyer experience of the cinema, so the units become one multi-faceted attraction.”
However, as the original planning permission for the units is for restaurants and cafes, a change of use to ‘assembly and leisure’ has to be approved by council bosses.
The document notes that while the cinema has been a ‘useful and viable addition to the town centre’, there is currently an ‘over supply’ of food and beverage outlets.
New leisure attractions, it claims, will do more to entice visitors and boost the town centre than adding to the existing bars and eateries.
The statement adds: “Subject to planning permission being granted, this will be of greater benefit to the town centre with regards to attracting footfall, the retention of users, strengthening the evening economy and additional recreational and social benefits.”
The existing Redrock car park is described as ‘more than adequate’ given it has been designed to cater for the whole complex, while further parking is available at Debenhams and Merseyway.
Documents add that the bowling alley and arcade can accommodate up to 175 people, while if the units were used as restaurants they would have a capacity of ‘at least 300’.
“The new use will have considerably less people than the designed population for restaurants,” it adds.
“For this reason, there would be no added impact in terms of traffic, parking or associated environmental issues.”
The ten-lane alley is described as being less noisy than a typical ‘free standing bowling centre’ with sounds ‘contained in the building’.
In conclusion, bosses claim the proposed change would have no negative impact on the surrounding area, but instead ‘improve the occupation of the building and thus re-inforce the amenities in Stockport’.