Victoria Park Rotten Row Southport Data via plota.co.uk

DC/2026/01285 - Full Application Approved

Proposal

Change of use from an existing tennis court to a car park, conversion of existing vacant public toilets into Padel changing facilities, storage and a food and drink kiosk and installation of a wellness facility including a sauna, cold plunge and changing and WC facilities. Data via plota.co.uk

View original council record ↗Last checked

Application progress

✓
Received
30 Jul 2026
✓
Approved
17 Sept 2026

Approved on 17 Sept 2026 · Delegated Decision · Last checked 24 Sept 2026

Site constraints 5

Agricultural land, grade 5
Very poor quality farmland, not best and most versatile. Source: the Predictive Agricultural Land Classification Map (Defra and Natural England, 2025; the Welsh Government's Predictive ALC Map 2 in Wales), a model rather than a site survey. A site survey can differ.
Where development of farmland is needed, policy prefers poorer land over the best and most versatile (grades 1, 2 and 3a). Three sources: Natural England's post-1988 field surveys, which are definitive where they exist; the Defra predictive map for England (2025) and the Welsh Government predictive map, modelled from the soil map with 3a and 3b split; and the 1970s provisional map, which planners and other services still show, coarser and with grade 3 undivided. Where the provisional and predicted grades disagree, treat the predicted grade as the current estimate and expect an application to carry its own survey.
Habitat network: Network Enhancement Zone 1
Where habitat is joined up enough to work as a network. Context, not a constraint on its own.
Also on the record
SSSI 231 m away: Sefton Coast SSSI; Special protection area 371 m away: Ribble & Alt Estuaries; 1 listed building within 150 m.
Not affected
Outside flood zones 2 and 3 · Not green belt · No scheduled monument at the site

Checked on 25 September 2026. Historic England, the Environment Agency, Natural England and council datasets, Open Government Licence. A boundary can run through a site and the council holds the definitive record: confirm with the council before relying on this.

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Important details

Council
Sefton
Application type
Full Application
Received
30 Jul 2026
Validated
30 Jul 2026
Ward
Dukes Ward
Case officer
Show
Decision
Approve with Conditions
Decision date
17 Sept 2026
Decision level
Delegated Decision
Applicant
Show
Agent
Spoke Design

How this decision compares

Decided in 49 days from validation, 7 days faster than Sefton's median of 56 for changes of use. Approved, as 77% of changes of use here are.

54%decided within 8 weeks
77%approved
75decided in the last year

Plota live figures for changes of use decided by Sefton in the last twelve months, from validation. Sefton decision record →

Consultation & key dates

Comments by
9 Sept 2026
Statutory expiry
24 Sept 2026
Env. assessment
No
Sefton
Planning Authority Score
6.4/10
Average
#84 of 296 councils
Relevant to this application:
Change of use

Sefton ranks #119 out of 296 councils for householder decision speed. Householder applications are slightly more likely to be approved here (96%) than the national average (90%).

These figures are council-wide context, not a prediction for this application. View full council performance
Sefton decision statistics
Based on MHCLG data, the year to March 2026
93%
Overall approval rate
Above avg (87%) #66 of 296
96%
Householder approved
Above avg (90%) #59 of 296
71%
Decided in 8 weeks
Above avg (63%) #119 of 296
39%
Extended time limit
Below avg (41%) #141 of 296
87%
Minor dwellings approved
82 decided (1-9 homes)
87%
Major dwellings approved
15 decided (10+ homes)
78%
Change of use approved
76 decided
1,029
Total decisions
75 refused in the year to March 2026