Gym beats objections to open in Fife town

Raw Anatomy was given the go-ahead to open a base in High Street, Thornton by the central planning committee.

It has operated out of various locations across Fife, but owner Noel Rye, said he was is excited to be getting on with this new venture

Mr Rye said: “We are ecstatic that after two years and a fight to open, we get to move forward.

“We are delighted to open in a community setting as we are a community at the gym. We work on both fitness and mental health and being in the heart of a community is where we want to be.”

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The gym has also agreed to help renovate the town hall in Thornton.

Concerns were raised over parking and resident lodged objections, but a officers told councillors that there were 55 parking spaces on site.

Planning officer Derek Simpson added: “The building currently has planning permission to open a supermarket. A shop could open tomorrow, generating a lot more traffic movement than a gym, and we would have no say in it.”

Mr Rye confirmed that they had scaled back on the size of gym classes after concerns were raised, limiting each to 18 people.

He said: “At the most, you’re only going to have 36 cars maximum coming and going.

“We even offered up the car park to other local businesses to use if on-street parking wasn’t available.”

Concerns were also raised over noise from the gym, but a report showed that there was no issues with sound escaping the building.

They voted five to four to allow the gym to operate.

Councillor Ian Cameron said: “The economic opportunity to bring an unused building back into use is fantastic. It is a great opportunity to make use of that space.”