HIGH Street firms Laura Ashley, Scats and Majestic Wine are to set up on the long-awaited new retail park at the former coalyard in Station Road, Petersfield.

The names were released this week by Quadrant Estates, which is developing the one-and-a-half-acre site – one of the last and most expensive pieces of real estate left in the town.

A major health and fitness club could also be in the pipeline for the town if amended plans for the site are given the go-ahead. One of the country's leading health club operators is set to open its doors there.

Chris Daniel, for Quadrant Estates, said all the retail units would be leased by Quadrant to the companies.

Scats, the DIY and garden centre chain, would take the first unit. It is a familiar store to shoppers in the area, with outlets at Godalming and Winchester.

The third unit is set to be split into two buildings with Majestic Wine Warehouses taking one and household fashion name Laura Ashley leasing the other.

This week Quadrant has submitted new plans to East Hampshire District Council for the site. It already has permission for the three huge retail units on the site.

Work by Railtrack on the first phase of the development, which includes extending the station car park and building a roundabout in Frenchmans Road to give access to the site, is almost complete.

But Quadrant is now asking for permission to turn one of its retail units into a health and fitness club in a two-storey building of almost 930 square metres.

Mr Daniel told The Herald: "The club will be run by LA Fitness, one of the leading operators in Britain.

"We have submitted the amended plans for the club in response to the increased demand in the country for health and fitness facilities," he added.

The club will be for private members and open to anyone in Petersfield to join.

"It will offer top-quality facilities," said Mr Daniel "and will include a gym, swimming pool and aerobics facilities."

He said he hoped work would begin on the site in September or October this year and the stores would be open for business by next summer.

East Hampshire District Council planning officer Jeremy Heppell said that although the amended plan did not fit in with the terms of the existing permission, he did not believe there were any principal objections to a health and fitness club on the site.

Mr Heppell said there were, however, a different set of criteria for parking provision for a health club.

Government guidelines, he said, were for one parking space per 20 square metres of floor area for a retail unit. This rose to one space for every seven metres of floor space for a health club.

"It is fair to say that in theory the requirement is for significantly more parking for a health club," he told The Herald.

But he said government guidelines on parking had altered dramatically since Quadrant's original application was granted.

It could emerge that there was already adequate parking within the proposed plan.

Mr Heppell said the application would go before members of the planning south committee in August or September.