Berkshire gymnastics club faces closure over planning technicality
The Phoenix gymnastics club has been in existence for more than 40 years but must find a new home
Last updated 1st Apr 2021
A Berkshire gymnastics club is facing closure after more than 40 years because they can't find a new training base.
Phoenix Gymnastics Club and play gym is based at Water Oakley near Maidenhead but their landlord wants to redevelop the building they currently use.
The club had a plan to build a new training centre at Fifield but a planning technicality is causing them funding issues.
The planning permission states the building can only be used for gymnastic training by Phoenix and as a result banks won't loan them the money they need because the planning consent would harm the resale value of the completed building.
According to the club, the current landlord of the Water Oakley site allowed an extra year for them to find a new home but is now ‘insisting’ Phoenix vacate the site by the beginning of May.
Chair of the Trustees Alisdair Thornton said:
“It’s absolutely devastating that despite being as profitable as we have ever been, and having successfully weathered the worst pandemic in recent times, such a popular and loved youth sports club should be allowed to fail due to a single planning condition. We can afford to service a loan but no-one will lend to us due to the notional re-sale value of the completed building.”
The outlook ‘looks bleak’ for the club that had, in pre-Covid times, a footfall of 1,000 children a week.
Lynn Bushell, Phoenix Centre Director said:
“Despite being a registered charity have stood on our own two feet whilst providing top class gymnastics training to thousands of Borough children. We have previously received very little in the way of grants from RBWM, but now we need help and our last hope is that local and central government will step in and provide a lifeline for our wonderful facility and help us build a home for the next 125 years.
"At an outside training session the other night one of my coaches was really upset because she thought it might be the last time she sees her boys group, that's heartbreaking we can't let this community club fail it would be a loss to the whole community"
If the club were to disappear, 30 jobs would be lost and the borough would lose national level, professional gymnastics coaching, pre-school and recreational gymnastics for children aged 18 months and over and a daily PlayGym for babies, toddlers, and their carers.
Lynn adds "It's not going to be an easy time now to find a job when lots of sports clubs are struggling and we've already seen the loss of two local clubs with Slough and Burnham going so another gymnastics club leaving would be tragic"
Many of the parents of the club's members are now lobbying the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead Council and Maidenhead MP Theresa May.