WALLINGFORD Rowing Club’s asbestos- ridden gym is to be flattened to make way for a new £300,000 building next month.

Constructionof the new two-storey building, including a mezzanine filled with rowing machines, is due to start in June.

The work is to be finished by the winter to beat the darker nights that make rowing on the river more difficult.

Wallingford Rowing Club coach Tony Wheel said: “It is really exciting. We have been fighting for this for years so it is great that is it close now.

“At the moment the gym is an early 1950s asbestos shed. It is rundown and very unattractive.

“The old gym should disappear in the next few weeks and make way for an attractive two-storey building.

“The impact of the Olympics has meant we have had a huge influx of rowers so we actually have a waiting list for our juniors now. And as demand increases we are, too.”

Mr Wheel has been a coach for 27 years, training a host of rowers including juniors Alice Walker and Freya Dale. They progressed to Great Britain’s under-16 quadruple sculls team last year.

Mr Wheel and club member Roger Turnbull have been organising the gym project for a number of years.

Pinelog – contractors based in Derbyshire who worked on Cholsey Village Hall – have been chosen for the work, which is due to take three to four months.

The scheme has been given the backing of ex-Wallingford rower Ken Lester, Great Britain’s youngest Olympian who competed in the 1960 Games in Rome when he was just 14 years old.

He said it would mean an already-successful club could go to even greater heights.

Mr Lester said: “It will mean the rowers can train hard in the winter swhen it gets dark and difficult on the river.

“We are really lucky to have such a good club. We are incredibly fortunate because we are on the longest stretch of the river between locks and this will help even more.

“It will be a huge improvement on what we have – at the moment it is a bit of an asbestos shack.”

Rowing machines will be installed in the first-floor mezzanine, with other gym equipment on the ground floor.

The £300,000 has been raised through grants and loans.

The last funds were secured by a £50,000 loan from South Oxfordshire District Council.

The rowing club is the first applicant to be awarded money from the council’s new Community Loan Scheme.

An £83,000 grant was awarded from the council’s Community Investment fund, and £50,000 by Sport England.

About £87,000 was raised by community fundraising, with the remaining £30,000 being raised to decorate and furnish the gym.

Cllr David Dodds, cabinet member for finance at South Oxfordshire District Council, said: “We recognise funding for these schemes is scarce and now, more than ever, our local communities need all the help they can get.”