Chippenham Sailing and Canoeing Club hopes to get improved hygiene facilities in a £107,000 refurbishment.

A £20,000 grant from this month’s Chippenham Area Board has helped the club, in Long Close, on its way to getting three separate units for male, female and disabled use, each including a toilet, shower and changing room.

Coach Julia Mannering said: “We don’t have any showers at the moment and just one unisex toilet in a shed. Most of the men just get changed behind their cars in the car park. It will be brilliant to have these facilities.”

Plans also include a water treatment plant to replace the current cesspit by the river.

Mrs Mannering said: “It’s a lot more green, it will clean the water from the hygiene units and discharge clean water into the river, rather than having nasty effluents sitting there in a big tank and waiting for a lorry to take it to Trowbridge.”

The normal maximum grant from the area board is £5,000, but members made an exception as officers believe the facility to be “very special”.

The club has also applied for grants from Chippenham Town Council, the Borough Lands charity and Sport England.

It has just been awarded £1,800 of National Lottery funding from Sport England’s flood relief fund to repair jetty and waterside railings that were badly damaged in the floods and storms over the last few months.

Mrs Mannering said: “We are delighted that Sport England has awarded this funding to us which will allow us to repair our jetty and water access to make it safe before our summer season starts in April.”