The company Black Ltd is applying for permission (21/01565/B) to turn the former BCS house into a fitness and wellbeing centre.

The two-storey building, situated on Peel Road in Braddan (near the Snugborough Trading Estate) was last in use as the offices of Parkinson’s building company.

The proposals are for a ’mindfulness and wellness centre’ where ’a small number of persons would come to the building and have available to them a range of health treatments for the mind and body’.

Those behind the application said the business would involve treatments that are ’personal to the clients rather than a large-scale operation of classes for multiple users’.

It also described the site as attractive due to the nearby heritage trail, where classes could be taken outside.

The centre would serve as a base for personal trainer Emma Blackburn, who is also a mindfulness coach.

Facilities offered would be one to one and classes of mindfulness and fitness including gym-based exercise and yoga and Pilates.

Ms Blackburn would be the principal trainer with other rooms rented out for complementary services such as one-to-one physiotherapy.

Group classes would accommodate no more than 15 participants.

There would be private space for clients to sit, talk, read and have refreshments.

An accompanying planning statement noted a recent trend of leisure facilities being set up in units in industrial areas, such as the climbing wall, boxing gym and martial arts gym at Hills Meadow trading estate.

’Mindfulness and exercise are increasingly important for mental and physical health and this site is accessible by foot, car and public transport, unlike some of the facilities that Emma is currently using,’ the statement said.

’We believe that this proposal results in a better use of the site than its current lawful use and will provide a secure and comfortable facility for clients whose physical and mental benefits significantly from the services that could be made available from here.’

Additional foliage would also be planted along the frontage of the site, including hawthorn, blackthorn and shrubs which would improve the view from the ground floor windows and shield road noise.