A FORMER nightclub on a Gillingham industrial estate is to be converted to a children’s play zone, café, and a gym.

Dorset Council has approved the application for the Legends club site on the Brickfields Business Park which had been open in the town for more than 20 years.

The council also agreed a single storey side extension to the building which will be for the new gym together with a changing area.

The application was made in the name of the Gillingham Community Leisure Trust.

The gym and play area application was supported by Gillingham town council which decided at its January planning meeting that the change of use would benefit the community and create jobs.

The application says all the twenty parking spaces on the site will be retained.

The former club celebrated its 20th anniversary in December 2011 with national DJ Scott Mills but later closed.

In July 2019 Dorset Council agreed the club could have a temporary event notice to re-open for three nights in early August. The hearing was told that the club, run by Mr Jason Mead, had been forced to close following a roof collapse and that he hoped to use the temporary event procedure to re-open prior to again applying for a full licence.

The club had a premises licence between November 2005 and January 2019 when it was surrendered. It was usually only open on Friday and Saturdays with its own minibus, dubbed The Ledge, used to shuttler clubbers to and from the town centre.