Young gymnasts are to be barred from a leisure centre to make way for school pupils.

Pupils from Peacehaven Community School will have exclusive use of the sports hall at the town's Meridian Leisure Centre from September.

Children taking gymnastics classes there will have to go to Seaford to keep up their hobby.

Last week, we told how members of an over-40s keep fit group had also been told they would no longer be able to use the centre.

The group's 15 members launched a petition in protest and now the gymnasts, some as young as four, are also collecting signatures.

Julie Woods, whose sons Joshua, seven, and Paul, 4, have attended the after-school classes for a year, said parents were unhappy with the news.

Mrs Woods, of Sutton Avenue, Peacehaven, said: "A lot of children will lose out.

"Not everyone can get to Seaford and nine times out of ten there is nothing going on in the sports hall anyway.

"There's not a lot for the young in Peacehaven and this will just make things worse."

Mrs Woods said the centre was a community facility and should be open to all.

Lewes District Council, which runs the Meridian, said the centre had been built on school land on the understanding that, when the time came, priority would be given to its pupils.

The school opened two years ago and has 350 pupils but will grow to cater for at least 800.

A council spokeswoman said waiting lists for gymnastics sessions at the Meridian and The Downs Leisure Centre in Seaford had prompted a review, the outcome of which was a new "progressive programme" under which children could begin from the age of two and develop their skills to competitive club level.

It involved amalgamating the centres' gymnastic sessions to form a club in Seaford.