Cheerleaders in Swindon who have spent the last year searching for a bigger home finally have reason to celebrate.
The Swindon Lightning Club, which caters to young cheerleaders aged seven to 17, currently operates from a gym in the Cheney Manor Industrial Estate.
But with an ever-growing group and increasing financial pressures, head coach Millie Fann declared in 2023 that the gym was “not fit for purpose” and began looking to move.
While plans for a new home at Headlands Trading Estate fell through, the group is now almost set to move into somewhere entirely different.
A spokesperson for the club said: “We are so excited to share what we’ve been organising in the background.
“Our new gym will be able to fit two full-sized floors and lots of new exciting areas.
“We have lots of fundraising ideas to help us with the move - our first being Tumble & Tents later this month.
“All funds raised will be going towards our new home.”
Swindon Lightning applied for planning permission to use a building in the Headlands Trading Estate in Upper Stratton for training and practice in 2023.
But these plans were cancelled when a change in funding and a lack of time for the volunteers who run the club put a spanner in the works.
“Due to this change in funding, we are now in a position whereby we are unable to progress with the application,” said Head coach Fann in November 2023.
“We are battling through uncharted territory to keep our athletes training in a suitable space and our costs low.”
10 months on from the devastating news, Swindon Lightning Club has now revealed that it has secured a new home.
Although the exact location is still being kept under wraps, video footage shared from inside the gym shows multiple large empty rooms ready to be converted into the new gym.
The cheerleading club hopes to make the move in November 2024, exactly one year on from when its plans for the Headlands Trading Estate were first cancelled.
This move will mean that more youngsters who want to learn the discipline of acrobatics and tumbling will now be able to enrol.
“Our current gym has been incredible to enable us to grow and develop multiple athletes enabling them to compete at an elite team level,” explained Coach Fann.
“However due to space restrictions and accessibility, we are having to run a waiting list for athletes keen to join our club."
With more than 600 athletes now training in both recreational and competitive teams, Swindon Lightning hopes that this latest move will help the club continue going from strength to strength.
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