Community boxing club in Chippenham says it will close unless someone can offer it a new home

• Watch the full report from Caron Bell

A community boxing club in Chippenham says it will have to close permanently unless someone can offer it a new home.

Emeralds Boxing Club trains boys and girls as young as five, and its founder argues it plays a vital role in the community, giving young people somewhere to go and something healthy to do.

But a rent increase means the club could soon be homeless.

For the past five years, Emeralds Boxing has been paying just £3000 a year, or 50p per square foot, to rent premises in an underground car park on Audley Road.

But with the lease up for renewal, its London-based landlord now wants to charge a market rent of around £7 per square foot.

For a non-profit club which charges just £2.50 for a junior session, this sort of rent is beyond its reach.

But the landlord Israel Gold told ITV West Country:

"We have been very helpful to the boxing club for five years now since we took ownership. Any suggestion that we are greedy developers would be wrong. [...] Our company should be appreciated for the part we did for a charity based in Chippenham, outside the town we operate from."

Club founder Liam Lathbury is hoping to secure new premises in or around Chippenham.

He says even a derelict site would do, as securing any building would allow him to apply for a Sport England grant to redevelop it.

In the meantime, he's set up a fundraising page. 

Liam says "We don't need a lot. We're happy to take on a project. If someone's got a derelict building, we're happy to invest in it, get it to a standard, as long as we can come to an agreement on the long term lease."