Devizes Budo Club is celebrating after gaining planning permission for a new base at Windsor Drive.

Now a major fundraising drive is to start to raise up to £300,000 for the new centre.

Budo Club head coach and trustee Richard Hopkins said: “We are very pleased the planning permission has gone through. This was an important stage and now we can really start with the fundraising.

“We will be holding our own events and also trying to get grants.”

He said the Devizes was lucky to have its own centre as 90 per cent of judo clubs in the country had to use village halls or schools and put away the mats at the end of every session.

But he said the new building would allow the club to include everything it needs and have space for modern changing rooms, kitchen and meeting rooms as well as the main hall.

He hopes the money can be raised within two years.

The club has been based behind the former Queen’s Head pub in Dunkirk Hill since 1965.

But now the old pub is being turned back into homes and two new cottages are to be built at the front of the site.

Devizes Town Council owns the Windsor Drive allotments and has offered the club a part of the car park to build the new centre on.

Roy Chandler, president of the budo club and one of the Aikido coaches, said at the time the planning application was submitted: “Land in Devizes is at a premium and locating the club at the Windsor Drive allotments would make it much more convenient for parents and children to get there. It’s a much better access.

“The amount may sound ambitious but the club has outgrown its present premises and we need to be pro-active in keeping it alive.

"We are very passionate and proud of our club and it is an integral part of the Devizes community.”