Aston Villa’s plans to revamp their Bodymoor Heath training ground to make overnight accommodation for players and staff will look be considered by Nort Warwickshire Borough Council’s planning board at a meeting on Monday.
The new centre would include 40 bedrooms for players and staff to use after returning from evening games. Plans also include improved facilities for the club’s women and youth teams and a permanent new office space for administrative and media staff.
“Normally, such overnight accommodation would only be considered to be appropriate on site for security reasons,” a council report says. “However, this is connected to the established use and activity of the club, particularly in order to retain its status both nationally and internationally. It is therefore a provision that only relates to the current applicant.”
The report also adds that the club could book hotel space as an alternative while acknowledging that a new two-storey rehabilitation centre may not be deemed appropriate due to Bodymoor Heath being on green belt land.
If councillors give the plans the green light, the decision still has to be looked at by the secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner.
Villa also want to create a purpose-built academy by demolishing some buildings to extend the women’s areas to match the men’s.
The existing academy building will be converted into the admin and media offices but the indoor 3G pitch next to it will stay in place with another one, covered by a 15-metre dome. This work will also form part of these new proposals.
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