The leaders of the town's gymnastics club have been asked to leave after allowing its facilities to fall into disrepair.

The Epping Forest Gymnastics Centre at North Weald Airfield was built by the district council in 1986.

After 12 years of operation under one set of managers, who ran the centre "very well" and maintained the equipment to a "high standard" a report to be seen by the council's cabinet on Thursday claims, a trust was formed to take over proceedings.

According to reporting officer Julie Chandler, this is where things began to go wrong.

She wrote: "Following a change of management in the late 1990’s, which is not unusual in gymnastics as coaches and managers move to higher level provision, it was taken over by a local gymnastics trust who over recent years, have provided little investment into the centre and its infrastructure.

"This has resulted in a diminished membership level with less classes and coaching being delivered.

"Over the last three to four years, officers from the council have pursued the trust to improve the standard of the building and to make investment into the centre, but to no avail.

"The centre is now in a poor state of repair both externally and internally and only a limited number of classes are provided by the Trust, with the building being hired out to several other providers, to operate their own activities from."

While the exterior of the building is the responsibility of the council, the exterior is under the Trust's charge and is now in need of "significant investment to bring it up to a standard suitable for ongoing safe and efficient provision of gymnastics."

The district council has decided enough is enough and has served the Trust with a termination notice effective from December 31.

With the new year will come a new start for the gymnastics centre, which will see significant investment.

If councillors approve the plans, £240,000 will be spent improving the centre before a new operator is brought in to run the service.

According to Ms Chandler, the council has received several expressions of interest of organisations wanting to run of the centre in recent years.

The Trust was contacted for comment.