Cumbernauld Gymnastics Club receives planning permission for new Westfield premises

A Cumbernauld gymnastics club can create a new home for itself after councillors unanimously approved its plans.
Members of Cumbernauld Gymnastics Club will be able to carry on its 50-year history in the new premisesMembers of Cumbernauld Gymnastics Club will be able to carry on its 50-year history in the new premises
Members of Cumbernauld Gymnastics Club will be able to carry on its 50-year history in the new premises

Cumbernauld Gymnastics Club has been granted permission to proceed with its proposals to turn an industrial unit in Mollins Court, Westfield, into a purpose-designed gymnastics venue.

The club has operated for around 50 years and its members have competed at the highest levels of the sport, including the Commonwealth Games and World Championships.

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In selecting a new premises, the club had to find something local in order to avoid any need to change its name,  and the chosen unit has ample room for large pieces of equipment to be used effectively, including the vault run and parallel bars.

For the past 25 years Cumbernauld Gymnastics Club has been based at Broadwood Stadium, but in July was told its lease would not be renewed by North Lanarkshire Leisure (NLL) at the end of the year.

Its new venue will feature a reception area, changing rooms, and appropriate bathrooms for members and parents in addition to the main gymnasium area.

The new premises will also feature 25 parking spaces to allow parents to drop off and pick up their children.

Head coach Lianne Dyce said: “We are delighted to have confirmation of our change of use for the new premises.

“This is a huge relief that we can carry on our almost 50-year-old club. We have been searching for a new facility for the majority of this year.

“We had found a premises in Wardpark, waited months over the summer holidays for the decision which was approved, only for the landlord to change their mind the following day.  So here we were, end of July and back to square one.

“The search continued and we found this new unit in Mollins Court. When we went to visit it was all offices with lowered ceilings etc, this was very hard to visualise what it would look like stripped back to an empty unit for our gym.

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“From here the wait for planning to come through felt like forever.  We are ecstatic that this is finally through and we can go forward with our moving process.

“The unit is currently being refurbished so we visited the site to see how works are coming along. The change is amazing and we can really visualise what the finished unit will look like.

“We now will have weekly site visits to keep track of progress and help give our input to the works.

“Our classes will stop the week ending December 9, from then we will be getting the current gym cleared and cleaned up and hoping to have our keys soon after that to get all equipment moved over the Christmas period.

“If all goes well we are looking to reopen in the new facility on January 14.

“We have been fundraising as much as possible to help go towards the dilapidations cost and funds are going into the new facility to make it as amazing as possible for our club members and new members to come.”