A POPULAR gymnastics club will have to cut the number of members at the end of the month after being forced out of its new building.

Cherwell Gymnastics Club, which welcomes about 200 youngsters, will move out of its home in Ashville Way, Blackbird Leys, on July 1 after an eight-month battle to stay at the industrial estate.

But after the long-running dispute came to a head in February, a council U-turn on changing the building’s use meant the club would be evicted after publishers Mayfield Press showed interest in moving in.

The club will have to move out on July 1 and will be forced to split itself between two Oxford sites after failing to find appropriate city buildings to house the popular club under one roof.

Cherwell Gymnastics Club chairman Hazel Walsh said: “When we didn’t get the permission to stay at the last meeting, we were given until the end of June to stay.

“It is slightly frustrating as Mayfield Press did not put in an offer for the lease, although now the landlord has found a different tenant to move in.

“So, for the short term we will have to move into two venues: The Cherwell School and Blackbird Leys Leisure Centre.

“It will obviously cause some complications for the children as they wont have all the equipment they need in one place.”

The eviction comes after the club was originally given the go ahead to move in by councillors in October 2016, but opposition from neighbouring business Mayfield Press during the planning process prompted a council U-turn and it was decided the space should be designated to employment.

Mayfield Press originally said it hoped to expand into the club’s unit creating space for 35 jobs, but director Cameron Thomson said talks with the landlord fell through and the company is now looking for other sites outside Oxford.

He said: “We wanted the unit but the land lord wouldn’t give it to us, for financial reason I guess.

“It is nonsense to say we didn’t want to expand into that space, you can see how congested our business is currently.

“We now will have to look outside of Oxford, we have just bought another base in Buckinghamshire so are keeping our options open.”

Mr Thomson added: “It was the wrong decision made by the council initially, you can’t bend the planning rules to suit yourselves.”

Cherwell Gymnastics club will move all of its equipment over to its new premises in the coming weeks, splitting itself between two sites.

This means the 200-strong club will have to cut its extra classes and Mrs Walsh said she expects numbers to drop to about 150 members for the next season.

She said: “We are having to cut at least two new classes that we put on when we got the bigger space, so that is at least 30 spaces.”

Mrs Walsh added that a number of members tend to move on at the end of the season, but the relocation means its likely no more members can be taken on.

The gymnastics club currently has 450 families on its waiting list.

It hopes to continue its search for a site which is suitable in size and accords to the planning policies in Oxford.

For more details on the club see cherwellgym.co.uk