By Patrick LowmanA SPORTS centre has shut its doors without warning, leaving several clubs and hundreds of members having to find a new venue.The Yellow Dot Sports Centre in Sudbury was open as normal on Saturday, but people arriving there for on Sunday evening were shocked to find the doors locked.

By Patrick Lowman

A SPORTS centre has shut its doors without warning, leaving several clubs and hundreds of members having to find a new venue.

The Yellow Dot Sports Centre in Sudbury was open as normal on Saturday, but people arriving there for on Sunday evening were shocked to find the doors locked.

Notices were posted on the doors, the centre had been closed because it was no longer commercially viable.

Nick Thompson, who runs the centre, has not been available for comment, but his personally-signed notice read: "The club is a having a major cashflow problem and is struggling to meet its current debts.

"A review of likely income and expenditure over the coming months indicates that the club is no longer commercially viable and in such circumstances there is no alternative, but to close."

The Yellow Dot Sports Centre is one of the town's biggest sporting complexes, with a host of facilities including tennis and squash courts, football pitches, a state-of-the-art gym and aerobic studios.

It is home to many groups, including kickboxing, kung fu, aerobic, archery and squash clubs and a beauty therapy business, all of which are now looking for new premises.

Although some have managed to find new locations, other clubs have been forced to suspend classes until new premises can be found.

Kathy Smith, who has run her business Essential Beauty, from the centre for more than two years, said: "We are very disappointed by what has happened, we were only told at the last minute the place was closing. We feel very let down.

"We have managed to find somewhere else very quickly through a client, but many of the clubs will be left without a home for the moment."

Alistair Campbell, a gym member and former employee of the centre, added: "Everybody is a bit shocked by what has happened and nobody really knows what is going on."

The Yellow Dot Sports Centre, which is on the Arms Trading Estate, was opened in 1995 and at one time had about 350 members.

A spokesman for Sudbury-based William Armes Limited, who leased the premises to the Yellow Dot Sports Centre, said: "We are the landlords, but we don't know the ins and outs of what has happened."

patrick.lowman@eadt.co.uk