HUNDREDS of children waiting to join a popular sports club have fresh hope after it found a new home.

Cherwell Gymnastics Club has secured permission from Oxford City Council to build a base outside an Oxford school, which should allow it to expand its membership.

The club has about 600 families on its waiting list – many with multiple children – and has been in limbo since it was evicted from a Blackbird Leys warehouse in July 2017.

Its sessions are currently split between The Cherwell School and Leys Pools and Leisure Centre, but the council has now passed plans for it to erect its own building at The Oxford Academy in Littlemore.

Club chairwoman Hazel Walsh said: "We are delighted as a club and as a city that we're one step closer to having a dedicated facility for gymnastics in Oxford.

"There is lots of work to do to make this a reality - we know it is only a starting point in reaching our goal of every person in Oxford having the opportunity to enjoy all the benefits and joy of gymnastics."

READ AGAIN: Cherwell Gymnastics Club plans move to Oxford Academy

City council planning officers approved the proposal the week before last, setting out four conditions including that the The Oxford Academy must have access to the building during school hours.

Its decision letter said: "This is to ensure an educational use to the site is still retained in the interests of the amenities of neighbouring occupiers."

The plan is to put up a 3,500sq ft prefabricated building, on a disused outdoor sports court at the 950-pupil secondary school, next to its car park in Sandy Lane West.

Cherwell Gymnastics Club will rent the land on a long-term lease and the school will get to share the building, which could be in place by Easter if funding is secured.

The club hopes to raise £100,000 to kit out the basic mobile building, and install floors, toilets and upgraded equipment, and is set to launch a fundraising page in the coming weeks.

More than 100 children are currently members at the gymnastics' club, which used to run solely at The Cherwell School in Summertown until it outgrew the facilities.

A long search for a permanent home saw the club move into a Blackbird Leys warehouse, but planning approval was later quashed after a printing firm asked to expand into the unit.

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Planning rules protect industrial space due to a city-wide shortage, so the gymnasts had to relocate again.