SUPPORT is mounting for a popular sports club to take over land surrounding its club in Stratton.

Esprit Gymnastics Club has won the backing of Swindon’s mayor Nick Martin and North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson for its bid to develop land surrounding its building at the former Headlands School.

Both said they would be happy to see the club develop the land but added Swindon Council had a duty to follow the strict legal rules surrounding the selling of council-owned land.

Staff at the club – in partnership with Statton Parish Council, Hannick Homes and British Gymnastics – have spent eight months preparing a £4m bid to take over the campus around the site. The club has a 50-year lease for the building but not for the fields around it.

Swindon Council has been trying to sell the land for four years and in July put it out to open tender.

Mr Tomlinson said: “I will keep my fingers crossed for them. The principle of the bid is fantastic. There will be huge potential for the whole community.

“But there are very strict legal laws which the council must follow. It is my understanding that there are seven other bids.”

Coun Martin said he has been a long-standing fan of the club, which sent Jade Faulkner to the 2012 Olympics and lots of its members to a number of prestigious competitions around the world, including a championships in Gibraltar over the weekend.

He said: “The council will have to pick the best bid but they should bear in mind the substantial rent that is paid by the club and the benefits it brings to the whole community. It is very important that enough car parking spaces are left at the site.”

Club chairman Mark Hows has appealed to residents to write to the authority to support their application, which would include 60 homes – compared to the potential 150 that planning permission would allow.

The proposals would also include open space that could be used by other sports clubs.

He said: “Members pay for this club. If we lost this bid and someone came in and only built 50 car parking spaces it could cause a lot of trouble for parents dropping off their children.

“If there is not enough car parking it could stop people coming which would put our future at serious risk.”

Around 200 people a week use the club and it pays £54,000 annually to the council in rent.