A judo club has been forced to move premises as the new Deal Youth Hub will not cater for sports.

Mick Davies, senior coach at Deal Bushido Judo Club, has been holding the club at the
Linwood Centre in Mill Road for the last four years.

When it closes its doors in February to make way for the new youth centre, the Deal Bushido Judo Club will have to move.

Mr Davies said: “They’re closing Linwood down in February and they said we can’t use the new one.

“The youth club that they are building you go in the front entrance and everything that’s in the youth club is through that hall.

“The plans don’t cater for sport and there’s no storage for mats. They’re not going to cater for us.”

The level three coach and chairman of the club said he had concerns that some children could not afford to go Tides Leisure Centre for sports activities and so would lose out once the new youth centre was built.

He said: “We keep about 30 kids off the street.

“The youth club should cater for sport, especially for those kids that can’t afford Tides.”

A spokesman for Kent County Council confirmed its design did mean it could not accommodate the judo club.

Deal Bushido Judo Club was established in 1969 by Mr Davies’s father Arnold Davies and Mr Davies was also a founder member. He said: “We have felt they wanted us out for a long time – the place is filthy, it’s not clean.

“They have been trying to push us away.”

He has been in contact with Betteshanger Sports and Social Club and it seems the club will be offered new premises there, but Mr Davies is still concerned about the lack of sport facilities at the new youth hub.

A KCC spokesman said: “The new Deal Youth Hub currently under construction will provide excellent facilities for the young people of the area when it opens early next summer.

“However, the design does mean that the centre will unfortunately not be able to accommodate the judo club currently based at the nearby Linwood Youth Centre, which will be closing at the same time.”

The Mercury backed the campaign that fought hard to save Linwood when it was faced with closure.

The £1 million youth centre will be next to the skate park at Victoria Park, Deal, by Tides Leisure Centre.