A TANNING studio could open in a former bank branch that closed more than a year ago ago.
The TSB Bank closed its branch in General Rees Square in Cwmbran town centre in September 2024.
Part of it has since had permission to reopen as a bookies, and an application for the remaining unit has now been made to allow a change of use from financial and professional services to a tanning studio.
The application to Torfaen Borough Council’s planning department, states six full-time equivalent jobs would be created at the tanning studio.
The application has been made by LCP Properties, of Kingswinford, near Dudley in the West Midlands and doesn’t name a brand or operator for the studio.
A statement submitted with the application says no physical alterations will be required to the building, though future applications for “minor” changes could be made, and acknowledges the proposal would result in the loss of a financial and professional services permission from the centre.
The supporting document states the new use should be acceptable in principle: “The proposed tanning salon use would continue to provide a shop frontage and attract footfall to the town centre, being a complementary commercial use to the wider uses found within the town centre.
“The property is not located along a primary or secondary frontage and as such the proposed use is not considered to undermine the shopping character, vitality or viability of the town centre.”
The application also states the unit is next to a large car park and notes the council’s highways and transport department hadn’t objected to the application for the bookmakers.