Wootton Bassett Sea Cadets celebrate the plan to replace their portable building , which is nearly 30 years old, with a £500,000 new headquarters (16912/03)Sea cadets in Wootton Bassett could soon be enjoying a new half a million pound, state-of-the-art building at their unit by Jubilee Lake.

At the moment the cadets are trained in a portable building that has been used since 1976.

But plans have been drawn up for a new, much larger building to replace the ageing cabin.

Chairman of the Wootton Bassett Sea Cadets, Duncan Wostenholm, said: "The new designs are very exciting and include a total of six classrooms which will give us an opportunity to split the unit down into different activities whereas at the moment we only have two classrooms, which limits what we are able to do."

The final touches are being put together on the business plan before the unit, which is run as a charity, can start applying for grants.

"We will be applying to places like the Lottery grant and the district and county councils but there'll still be money that we will need to raise from the public," said Mr Wostenholm.

A summer of fundraising events is being planned and the unit has recently appointed a fundraising committee. One keen cadet has already raised over £200 by spending a whole day at the Wootton Bassett School dressed in full uniform.

"Our main fundraising idea so far is to effectively sell the bricks of the new building for a pound each. We would then have a roll of honour inside the unit listing all the people that had helped give money," said Mr Wostenholm.

The next stage once the business plan is completed is to apply for planning permission for the new unit, which Mr Wostenholm is hopeful will get the backing of the town council.

He said: "We concentrate on teaching life skills and we're not a recruitment arm for the Royal Navy although about 20 per cent of Navy recruits have been in the Sea Cadets Corps.

"We teach a wide range of things from learning to swim to maritime skills, discipline and personal leadership and what we try to do is in the interests of the town and wider community."

At present the unit has just under 30 cadets on its books ranging from ten to 18-year-olds and Mr Wostenholm hopes the new building will bring in new blood.

He said: "We're confident that people will help us, although we're also aware that there is a great demand on money and that we are only one of thousands of other charities."

The building, which is scheduled to take 20 weeks to build, would include a kitchen, toilets, offices and a boat shed. The improved facilities would also open up other opportunities.

"We're hoping to get the building up and running very quickly because the current building requires maintenance and that becomes more and more expensive with the age of the building," said Mr Wostenholm.

"By having better facilities and a larger building it will also give us the opportunity to host district or area weekends where cadets from other units can come to Wootton Bassett, which would be wonderful."