A SUCCESSFUL amateur boxing club is fearful for its future after an increase rent prices at its base in Bradford.

Youngsters at Platinum Boxing Academy are said to be “devastated” after the volunteer management committee that runs their Springfield Centre base in Thorpe Edge upped the rent.

Councillor Jeanette Sunderland (Lib Dem, Idle and Thackley), who is on the centre’s committee, said the boxing club’s rent would increase from £10 an hour to £15 an hour.

She said the increase was forced upon the centre by Bradford Council cuts and that the committee was keen to see the boxing club remain.

Dave Nelson, a coach at the club, said: “We are a small gym and we’ve been there five years. Prices are going up. It will be about £120 more a month.

“We are keeping kids off the streets. We do four days a week, Monday to Thursday, 6pm to 8pm.

“We have 15 kids, tops. The room is too small to take any more.

“These kids could end up messing about on the streets.

“The kids are devastated. They are worried that they are going to be without a gym in the area.”

He added: “We have kids in the gym that have been selected for the Commonwealth youth games. We are a decent club.

“We have national champions in their age groups of 14, 15 and 17.

“They could be without a gym. I am having to look outside Bradford.

“I am not making any money. If anything, I put extra money into it. I don’t make a penny out of it.

“I transport the kids around to competitions.”

Cllr Sunderland said: “In response to the Council withdrawing core costs from the association, the volunteer management committee has had to review all its rents and we have said that we will have to increase the rents. It is for everything.

“We are doing a rent review. We have arrived at a price for a formally constituted group, which is £15 an hour, and which is a slight increase.”

Cllr Sunderland said the committee wanted to help the club continue, and added: “We have offered to help him expand his premises within our club so that he can increase the number of young people, and to help him get his club onto a firmer financial footing.

“We have offered to work with him and nobody has asked him to leave.”

Cllr Sunderland added: “But if we don’t put our finances in order we will close. The fact is, we have to pay business rates, gas and electricity.

“We don’t want to see the boxing go from the centre. We want to help it have more kids in there to experience the boxing club. We want the boxing club to continue in there.”

Last July, boxers from the club won five gold medals and one silver from the Monkstown Box Cup, one of the biggest amateur events in Europe.

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