Refusal Lined Up for WWE Stars’ Wrestling School Expansion Plans

Two WWE stars’ plans to transform a vacant space in Bootle into a wrestling school look set to be knocked back after concerns were raised over the loss of employment space.Fighting Spirit Wrestling is behind the application, which concerns a site on Berry Street. The company was founded by WWE NXT UK tag team champions James Drake and Zack Gibson.The site can currently be utilised for business, general industrial and storage use, with the application proposing a change to assembly and leisure.The plans have been backed by huge levels of support, with comments of approval received from 16 addresses in Bootle, 18 elsewhere in Sefton, 35 in Liverpool and 158 further afield.While the application has passed the sequential – which aims to direct leisure uses towards designated centres as no available sites exist within Bootle town centre – it has been decided that it does not meet any of the three exceptions set out under Local Plan policy ED3. This is designed to restrict the loss of employment land.