Fears for future of Oxford gymnastics amid planning dispute

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Campaigners fear gymnastics could all but disappear in Oxford after councillors backed plans to move a hugely popular club out of its new home.

Cherwell Gymnastics Club says it has spent thousands of pounds moving into the industrial unit in Blackbird Leys, having initially been granted permission by an Oxford City Council planning committee last October.

But recently the committee reversed its decision after a neighbouring business objected, saying jobs would be put at risk.

Interest in Cherwell Gymnastics Club surged after the London 2012 Olympics - the club now has more than two hundred members and more than a thousand youngsters on a waiting list.

Chairman, Hazel Walsh, said they have spent years trying to find a site big enough to properly accommodate the club and all of its equipment.

The warehouse is registered as a protected employment site, so changing its use would be a departure from council planning policies. Last year, officers recommended that the club's plans to move into the unit be refused. Councillors went against that advice, and gave the club the go-ahead.

But shortly after, Mayfield Press, a printing company next door, challenged that decision. It said it had been hoping to expand into the warehouse (Unit 5) and were it not able to, jobs could be put at risk.The planning application was reheard and the committee changed its mind.

Mayfield Press believes councillors gave little consideration to employment issues at the initial planning meeting

The managing director of Mayfield Press, Cameron Thomson, said that while he has sympathy for the children who attend the gymnastics club, he believes planning permission should never have been given.

The decision is expected to go back to councillors for a third time in February

Oxford City Council said no final decision about the site has yet been made, as two councillors have called-in the planning committee's most recent decision for review. It is expected to be a heard by a different set of councillors next month.