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National electric vehicle (EV) charging network Be.EV have installed 8 x rapid chargers at Yate Shopping Centre in the main car park off Station Road.
South Gloucestershire has one of the lowest percentages of EV chargers in the UK, now complete – the Yate hub will provide a huge boost to the region’s charging provisions.
The chargers will offer EV drivers visiting the centre a location to quickly charge their vehicles on long journeys, as well as benefit shoppers and the local community.
The centre will be equipped with ultra-rapid Kempower chargers (up to 150kW), which can add up to 165 miles of range in a short 20-minute stop – a solution that matches the site’s customer dwell time.
The chargers also feature unique dynamic load-balancing abilities, meaning they can intelligently distribute power between vehicles according to capacity and demand.
This gives drivers a better charging experience when a location gets busy, and allows for more charging bays at locations with the same amount of available power.
Be.EV is one of the fastest-growing EV charge point operators (CPO) in the UK. The network is majority-owned by Octopus Energy Generation.
A new high end elite multi-sports, games and leisure venue will open in Yate Shopping Centre in mid-October.
Maxi Lounge, based in South Walk, is a new addition to the competitive socialising sector, one of the fastest growing trends in the hospitality industry. It will offer users the opportunity to play snooker, billiards, various forms of pool and darts, all on a play-by-hour basis along with exhibition matches and ‘kids clubs’ with coaching at weekends.
Matt Lancaster, (from Lyde Green) founder and Director of the Maxi Lounge, said:
“We are introducing a new element of leisure to the area as currently no town in South Gloucestershire has any serious leisure venues. In addition, we will be offering a varied and unique catering facility with licensed facilities, which will appeal to a very wide range of people of all ages”.
Andrew Lowrey, Yate Shopping Centre Manager:
“We are thrilled to be able to accommodate such an exciting project as Maxi Lounge. It requires a lot of space to include all elements of the proposals and we are fortunate to have the former Job Centre of sufficient size to suit their requirements”.
Maxi Lounge will occupy two floors with professional quality snooker tables, imported from China, on the upper floor and laid out for exhibition matches. Downstairs will feature a wide range of competitive socialising games including all electronic scoring darts; augmented reality darts; shuffleboard tables; various pool tables, including six ‘Blackball’, two American nine-ball, and one of the fastest growing cue sports in Asia, a Chinese ‘Heyball’ eight-ball pool table.
A Director of Sport will be appointed to overlook all the activities and qualified coaches will be on hand to give private lessons.
There will be two giant televisions and many smaller ones located on both floors featuring current sporting events, especially snooker and other cue ball championships.
Matt: “The Lounge will be very much a family atmosphere with no age limit but children U12 must be accompanied by an adult and after 9pm children U18 will have to be accompanied by an adult. One of our main non-sporting features will be the unique catering offer which has been tied-in with five local established businesses.”
“Each business will rotate on a weekly basis offering varied menus for lunch and dinner. The Lounge is fully licensed with 16 local and national beers on tap, both mainstream and independent, suppliers.”
The Maxi Lounge will be very much a family affair with Matt running the business on a day-to-day basis, with support from his wife Cat and his main partner, Nick Hawkins, who is part owner of the Supreme Sports Lounge in St Philips, Bristol.
Matt has been playing in the Bristol Snooker League for 30 seasons and has been trying to open a snooker club for the last eight years.
Matt continues: “The current Maxi Lounge Team is the Number One team in the Bristol District Area involving several professional players and we hope that in due course we will get a steady stream of new talent joining us even, hopefully, the next Judd Trump!”.