Jersey gym club for people with disabilities has under a month to find new home
Report by Otis Holmes
A Jersey gym club for people with learning difficulties has less than one month to find a new home after the government told it to move out.
The Jersey Special Gymnastics Club runs its sessions at Greenfields, which is also home to the secure children's unit.
The club has been told it must leave their premises at Greenfields by 5 July, at the latest, and remove all equipment from the site.
The government told the club following an improvement notice for Greenfields from the Jersey Care Commission that was written in March. It said that the premises should not be used for activities unless they are related to the secure unit:
"Young people at this home are often unable to use the sports hall facilities as these are used by a club unconnected with this service. The sports hall must be available to these young people at all times, and it should have appropriate equipment to enable them to take part in fitness activities." Head Coach Nicola Kirkland says the group is now looking for a new base and also a place where equipment can be stored.
"What we'd like to see happen is proper gymnastics facilities over here, but ideally for us we just need a building we can use so we can keep going."
It comes as the club prepares for a team to participate in a UK competition early next month (July) - which is a qualifier for the World Games in Berlin next year.
If one or more of the gymnasts are selected to represent Great Britain, the club says it will add more pressure to find a new training location.
Nicola says it is important a solution is found to secure the future of the club:
"The longer that we haven't got a building, we will lose the members we've got. We lost a lot of members during Covid because we didn't know who the manager was here, we couldn't get access to the building.
"We were so long getting back after Covid that we lost a lot of senior gymnasts. So we're now in the stage of getting our membership back up. We've got a lot of juniors that have started, some are showing really good promise, and we've got a load on the waiting list."
A Government of Jersey spokesperson said:
"The Jersey Sports for the Disabled gymnastics club are being asked to move their activities out of Greenfields in line with the improvement notice issued by the Jersey Care Commission on 28 March. This will allow young people at Greenfields to access the gym facilities. "Officers are in discussion with the club and Jersey Sport to find alternative accommodation."