Project:

Gurnell Leisure Centre, London Borough of Ealing

A new state-of-the-art leisure centre, 300 homes and improvements to the wider parkland

Tibbalds were appointed as planning consultant in 2023 to prepare, manage and submit a hybrid planning application for a new replacement leisure centre with enabling residential development and improvements to the wider parkland. The key planning challenge on this project was the site's location in Metropolitan Open Land (MOL). The London Plan's MOL policy protects strategic open land within the city and gives it the same level of protection as the Green Belt.

© Mikhail Riches Architects (masterplan and residential architects), GT3 Architects (leisure centre), Periscope (landscape architects)

Project Deliverables:: Hybrid planning application comprising full planning for the leisure centre and surrounding parkland, including a replacement BMX and pump tracks, outside gym and play spaces. Outline planning for the residential use including 300 new homes (35% affordable).
Client:: London Borough of Ealing
Collaborators:: Mikhail Riches, GT3 Architects, Periscope, Gleeds, ITP, Expedition
Location:: Ealing
Status:: Resolution to grant at planning committee, January 2025

The Gurnell masterplan will bring back to Ealing a high quality and exemplar sports facility following the closure of the existing centre in 2020, new and improved parkland facilities and up to 300 new homes (including 35% affordable).

The Gurnell Leisure Centre project has provided an opportunity to masterplan the whole site, interweaving the new leisure centre, wider parkland and residential uses together in a comprehensive and sensitively designed masterplan.

The existing leisure centre has been closed for too long (since 2020) and this planning application has been fundamental to bringing those leisure uses back to Gurnell, creating a state-of-the-art facility with bigger and better facilities.

Minimising the impacts on the MOL has been at the forefront of the design and masterplanning process. A core design concept is to bring the character of the MOL and parkland to the Ruislip Road edge, improving views and accessibility into and throughout the park and MOL. Another core design principle is focusing development on grey belt land (previously developed land) to limit development within the parkland.

To overcome the planning constraint of proposing development in the MOL, Tibbalds demonstrated that Special Circumstances exist, as required by the NPPF for sites within Green Belt or MOL. Tibbalds ensured there was a well-balanced justification for developing in the MOL, highlighting all the benefits that were proposed in the leisure centre and the improvements to the parkland facilities. We also successfully completed an Alternative Sites Assessment, to provide evidence that there were no other non-MOL sites within Ealing that would be appropriate for these uses and scale of development, as required by the NPPF.