A major gym chain has drawn up plans to ramp up its spa offering and add a hydro pool, fire pit and five different types of saunas.

David Lloyd has applied for permission to expand its existing facilities at its Dartford branch after members called for improvements.

The leisure operator says it wants to help customers “relax and unwind” and is proposing to build a new hydro-pool, a spa garden or outside spa area, a boiler room, and a sauna cabin.

It is also looking to erect a single-storey extension to the existing building, in Darenth Road, to allow more space for new additions, including a meditation hut and a fire pit.

If approved, the gym will also look to add a Finnish sauna, which uses dry heat, a Himalayan salt sauna, which combines a generic sauna and a salt cave, and a citrus sauna – a sauna which is infused with citrus essence.

The plans also include room for a fire and ice room, which switches between extreme hot and cold, and a crystal steam room.

The design and access statement adds: “The club currently has a limited internal and external spa offering.

There have been considerable requests for an improvement to the facilities and this proposal aims to address these requests.”

But just a few weeks after submitting its application to Dartford council, the plans have received an objection from a neighbour who has complained about the “disturbing” level of noise.

It reads: “We live behind this sports centre and have to live with a lot of noise from this place. Especially in the summer, we can never sit in our garden and enjoy peace and quiet.

“The screaming and shouting all day from the children and adults are very disturbing, so another outside area could make it worse and I totally object to the planning application.”

No other comments had been made in support or against the proposals at the time of writing.

You can view the application here or by searching for reference number 23/00822/FUL on the council’s planning portal.

A decision is expected by September 26.