Plan for £6.5m adventure centre
A £6.5 million adventure playground that will attract up to 250,000 visitors a year is being planned for Wolverhampton.
A go-kart track, harnessed high-rope trail and climbing walls are among the thrilling activities the Life Station would offer. The centre would also contain several shops.
It would occupy the former Mecca Bingo hall at Bentley Bridge retail park in Wednesfield.
Essex-based Kidspace Adventures has signed up to run the operation and Costa Coffee, Carphone Warehouse and Wilson's Pets want to take up the retail units. Permission for an entertainment centre was granted to London-based Life Property in 2003, but a spokesman said it had taken a long time to secure operators.
He said this was due to delays to the retail park, vacant units, the closure of Healthland and the arrival of the Wolverhampton Swimming and Fitness Centre, which had all posed problems of their own.
But now a revised planning application for the old bingo hall, which shut in 2000 after four years in operation and has since fallen into a state of disrepair, is being scrutinised by the council.
Kidspace runs a centre in Romford, Essex, and is about to open a second centre in Croydon.
Managing director of Kidspace, Richard Farley, said: "Wolverhampton will be our third centre. We are very much looking forward to working there and are awaiting the outcome of the planning application."
If granted permission, the Life Station could be open by the end of the year.
Other activities in the centre would include a child's gym, trampolines, an indoor sports arena and an entertainment area for parties and comedy clubs.
