'About time' - Echo readers welcome plans to bring former Sunderland shop site back into use

Proposals have been lodged with Sunderland City Council to transform the former Storey Carpets, on Toll Bar Road, Ryhope, into a gym.

If approved, the new gym would create 14 new jobs and provide parking for its customers across more than 30 spaces.

Readers have praised the idea for the vacant site – but also called for ample facilities to be provided for children and young people, including a creche or softplay.

Other reader suggestions for the building included a leisure centre for children and an indoor market.

A consultation period into the plan is now ongoing, with a final decision expected on Wednesday, March 11.

Here is how you reacted on the Sunderland Echo Facebook page:

Julie Carr: “Provide fitness classes for parents with young children and a creche for them to go into … when my children were young these classes were priceless at The Puma Centre Silksworth.”

Angela Finn: “Ice rink or roller skating rink and bowling alley for kids to have somewhere to go, never should have shut Crowtree Leisure Centre.”

Helen Sylvia Kerr Voura: “Swimming pools for schools and the young ‘uns, get them into sports again, out of the house away from too many internet games.”

Michael Hall: “Be right next to McDonald’s and the new Burger King and KFC, happy days!”

Jordan Wilson: “I agree they should develop something similar to the Crowtree and put a swimming pool here as well as soft play or indoor activities things.”

Garry Johnson: “Don’t think it is a prime location for a gym, maybe an indoor market like the in shops in the Galleries, with many traders for local small businesses to trade.”

Vicky LH: “Said for years it would make a good gym!”

Brenda Halliday: “Excellent idea within walking distance, no need to waste time getting buses to other gyms.”

Ann Huntley: “Make the facility affordable.”

Bill Walton: “What’s not to like?”

Dave Franks: “About time, been derelict for years.”