Warehouse converted into Telford Pickleball Centre
An empty warehouse has been turned into a Pickleball Centre with courts available for public hire at evenings and weekends.
ServeSport has had their retrospective plans approved for a change of use for their Stafford Park warehouse in Telford – to also provide offices, training and research.
The company was previously based the e-Innovation Centre in Priorslee and has recently launched their sports club management software system called ManageOurClub.
Mike Lynch, managing director of ServeSport Limited, said in a planning statement submitted to Telford & Wrekin Council, that the building will be visited by potential clients to see the software in action as well as training and product development.
He said: “This will involve setting up a ‘demo’ club within the chosen building that will house the various hardware used by a large sports club – turnstiles, access controls, lighting controllers, court access gates, on-court interactive monitors for use by coaches/leaders, electronic scoreboards, EPOS systems, etc. – all of which will be directly controlled by our software on site to demonstrate to a sports club how ManageOurClub provides a ‘one-stop shop’ for their software and hardware needs.
“In order to best replicate a working club to visiting clubs, we will install three pickleball courts within the building and link the courts to the relevant parts of our software/hardware, e.g., when a court is booked, the software will automatically turn the lights on over the relevant court at the time of the booking.
“Pickleball was chosen as the sport to use for our ‘demo club’ because of the relevant experience in the sport and because the relatively small size of the court (a quarter the size of a tennis court) enables us to set up enough courts to make the site a realistic proposition within a small and affordable warehouse space.
“Pickleball is the world’s fastest growing sport and is becoming very popular in the UK, with many clubs and leisure centres now starting to add it to their portfolio of services.”
The software development centre will be available to clients between 9am and 6pm.
The Pickleball Centre is available for the public in the evenings and at weekends with three courts available between 6pm and 10pm during weekday evenings, between noon and 10pm on Saturday, and between 9am and 10pm on Sunday.
Telford Pickleball will be the trading name of the out of hours centre use with the club moving from its current base at Holy Trinity School in Priorslee.
Mr Lynch added: “The courts would be available for people to book (there will be no requirement for membership to play) and we will also run regular coaching/playing group sessions on the courts for those wanting to learn how to play/improve their game.
“There is currently nowhere to play Pickleball in the Telford and Wrekin area if you just want to book a court and play with friends and family.
“We have taken the most onerous requirement in these examples to ensure we have no issues with parking. The unit has been empty for some time and therefore does not currently provide any current employment opportunities.
“Adequate parking has been identified with easy, safe and immediate access from the parking areas to the building. The proposed use will bring an additional four full-time employment roles to the area over the two uses for the site.”
For more information visit the Telford Pickleball website at: www.telfordpickleball.com
