Kettering cheerleaders win world silver medal - but threat of KLV closure means they don't feel like celebrating

It should have been one of their greatest ever experiences.

Eleven incredible Kettering cheerleaders jetted off to Florida and returned home from the All-Star World Championships with a silver medal.

But, rather than toasting their success, those at TCA Cheer and Tumble now face an anxious time because their Kettering Leisure Village home faces the threat of closure in July.

Head coach and programme director Robyn Morrison, 32, said: "We do not feel like celebrating. I do not think we have even had time to reflect on the fact that we are second in the world right now."

The Kettering cheerleading academy is based at Arena Sports, at the leisure complex, and hires out the sports courts three nights a week.

They have 65 members, aged from four to in their 30s, and first found out that the Kettering Conference Centre site – which includes the Lighthouse Theatre, Balance Health Club and Arena Sports – would be closing just as they were taking their Diamond Elite squad to America.

Robyn, who is from Corby, said: "The girls were devastated. It should have been the time of their life and they spent it wondering whether it might be their final showcase.

"It's been awful. Since coming back from Florida we have had 32 people reach out wanting to join but we've had to say sorry because we don't know what the future holds.

"This is a massive limitation on sport in Kettering."

The site had been due to close on May 31 but the closure date was later extended to July 3. The Compass Group, which runs the site, said all businesses at the venue had been "making a loss for a number of years".

Robyn said that TCA Cheer and Tumble had offered to hire unused space in the arena – offering an up-front payment, yearly contract or monthly rolling contract – in a bid to grow their club but that the offer had been rejected.

They are not sure what will happen if the centre does close as planned on July 3. TCA Cheer and Tumble need a venue with high ceilings, that they can use outside school hours, but do not currently have an alternative permanent future home.

Robyn said: "We are trying not to think about it. We have reached out to schools but there's only so much they can offer because they will need the spaces for exams as well.

"Unless we can find somewhere on our own it does not look great."

And she also hit out at the lack of notice site users were given ahead of the closure decision being made.

She said: "If we had known this six months ago that's six months of searching we could have done. But it's something that has been dropped on us with two months to spare and that's no time.

"We have been here for six years. How do you put six years of your life and soul into two months of searching?"

An online petition against the planned closure now has more than 14,000 signatures and last night more than 350 people crammed into Kettering Arts Centre for a public meeting over the future of the site.

North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) leases KLV from BQ Farms, paying a £1 annual peppercorn rent, an arrangement which was inherited from their predecessor authority, Kettering Borough Council. The council has a contractual arrangement with Phoenix Leisure, which further sublet KLV to Compass Group Services, which made the closure decision.

NNC leader Cllr Jason Smithers said he could not promise any extra money to bail out the business on top of the £337,000 a year granted for indoor sports courts and the Lighthouse Theatre.

Officers from NNC were due to meet with Phoenix Leisure for face-to-face talks today (May 19). Representatives from Compass Group will travel to Kettering for another summit next week.

A Kettering Conference Centre spokesman previously said: “It has been a very difficult decision to close Kettering Conference Centre and not one we have taken lightly. Even with the council grant, we can confirm that all the businesses within the venue have been loss-making for a number of years.

"We have invested a significant amount of money into the facilities and our teams have worked hard to support all areas on the site. However, recently energy costs have risen by 290 per cent and operational costs by a further 50 per cent – this means it is no longer sustainable for us to operate.”