A ROWING club which lost its home of almost 150 years is celebrating a milestone in securing new premises – with the hope of expanding watersports in Bournemouth.

Westover and Bournemouth Rowing Club had enjoyed its seafront base since 1865, paying an annual rent of just £32.50 to the council for most of that time.

But last year it was announced that the site was being considered for expansion of the neighbouring Oceanarium and the club moved out earlier this year, using Bournemouth Bowls Club and Hengistbury Head Outdoor Centre as temporary bases.

Now the club has secured outline planning permission for a new home at Joseph Steps – to be named the Bournemouth Coastal Sports Hub – and is hoping to use it as a springboard to future success.

Carl McCrudden, club president, said: “It’s been a lot of hard work over the last year but we’ve managed to work closely with the council and in identifying a new site.

“It’s for all of Bournemouth, not just the rowing club, and I’ve been talking to many other coastal sports in terms of providing that.

“We want to be more focused with the kids’ section and promote young sport too.”

Bournemouth-based planning consultants Terence O’Rourke were responsible for securing permission for one of few buildings on the seafront to get the green light in recent years.

Andrew Elliott led the project at Terence O’Rourke and said: “We knew that the main challenge was designing a building to achieve the users’ space requirements that would not appear excessively dominant when viewed from the promenade and beach.

“Working closely with the council we settled on a building design that stepped back from the promenade over three storeys.”

He added: “We are hopeful that it will be a real asset for Bournemouth in years to come and will complement the council’s wider Town Centre Master Vision.”

Bournemouth council said no planning application for the expansion of the Oceanarium had yet been received.