WEYMOUTH Beach Volleyball Club has confirmed it may have to relocate should indoor sports facilities at Redlands Community Sports Hub close for good.

Club chairman Graeme Sawyer indicated a move to Dorchester or Bridport may have to be investigated if the sports halls at Redlands are not saved.

It comes after a heated public meeting held by current leaseholders Weymouth College, who are set to leave their existing agreement with Dorset Council in July.

Active Dorset has stepped forward as the sole candidate to take over the running of the outdoor facilities at Redlands.

However, no party has offered to save the indoor services, which are understood to be losing the college around £200,000 per year.

READ MORE: Clubs at risk as Redlands indoor facilities face axe

Any potential closure threatens the very existence of clubs such as Weymouth’s premier volleyball team, who have enjoyed a meteoric rise to National League Division One – the second-highest division in the country.

Speaking to Echosport, Sawyer underlined why Redlands is imperative to the club’s future.

He said: “It would have a massive effect on us. Dorset Council and Active Dorset recommend we use Osprey Quay as an alternative venue.

“That is not a suitable venue for volleyball. The floor is a concrete tile floor, which means it’s extremely hard.

“So, for volleyball where you’re jumping up it doesn’t do your knees much good.

“Volleyball England just don’t like it. On those grounds it wouldn’t be any good. We did have a look at it, but at the moment they haven’t got any holes in the ground to attach the posts.

“The court markings are too close to the wall, so you couldn’t use it for a National League game.

“And, of course, it’s an extra 15-minute drive. When we’ve got teams coming down from Manchester or whatever, it’s an extra journey for them and our players.

“We’ve got a squad of 10 at the moment, six of whom are local and four come from Bournemouth, Exeter, the New Forest to play for us.

“That’s another half an hour for not just match time, but training as well. That’s a significant distance. Osprey Quay is just not an alternative venue.”

Asked which venues could house potential relocations, Sawyer added: “Weymouth College is not completely impossible but there are quite a few barriers to using it.

“One is the fact that our games should be Saturday afternoons and that clashes with when football teams are playing on college pitches – they use the changing rooms.

“Certainly when we’ve tried to book it before, they’ve said we can’t because they don’t have changing rooms available.

“We also have problems there in that there’s no balcony to view from, which would be a shame.

“The other thing is training on midweek evenings. We’ve tried to set up a junior team and can’t get any space.

“We’d then have to look outside of town, possibly Dorchester, Bridport – who knows? Those are things we don’t want to have to look at.

“It just seems crazy that there’s a really good facility (at Redlands) which, with a bit of love and care, could be made into a really good facility.”

Weymouth visit Doncaster today in the National League (12pm).