Waterlooville gymnastics club’s call for new venue to help meet demand as 60 children wait to take part

More than 200 children aged up to 16 from the Waterlooville area are members of the Solent Gymnastics Club, which holds classes at Cowplain Activity Centre and Oaklands Catholic school.

The club, which opened in 2019, is run as a fun activity rather than for competition.

However, it has 60 children waiting to take part in club activities, and club owner Kellie Palmer cannot expand to meet demand due to hall availability at the two venues.

Kellie has made contact with several letting agents but so far without success.

Now Meon Valley MP Flick Drummond is adding her voice to Kellie’s call for help by asking Waterlooville landlords to rent premises to the club.

Flick said: ‘I was pleased to meet Kellie and visit her club but I was disappointed to discover she is finding it hard to rent suitable premises so she can expand.

‘This is frustrating when we all know that getting young people active is so important.

‘I will now work with the local borough councillors to see what can be done.

‘In the meantime, if there are any landlords out there who might have suitable premises to rent of about 4,000sq ft with high ceilings then please either get in touch with me or contact Kellie directly.’

Kellie also runs a young leader programme and currently has seven young people aged between 11-16 years learning and training to become qualified gymnastics coaches alongside our coaching team.

Visit solentgymnastics.co.uk.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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