Battersea Sports Centre has been thrown a life line after a new site was found to rehouse residents displaced by Wandsworth Council’s regeneration plan.

In 2015 Battersea Sports Centre had been lined up as a site to rehouse residents but this week the council announced the process of acquiring a site in Shuttleworth Road to rehouse people, while new homes are built at the nearby Winstanley and York Road estates, was underway.

Originally the sports centre was scheduled to shut down early next year.

FROM FEB 11 2015: Councillors agree to close Battersea Sports Centre as battle lines drawn between Tories and Labour

A petition to protect the sports centre received 1,154 signatures and was handed to Wandsworth Town Hall on September 30.

The petition was started by the Ukip’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Battersea, Christopher Howe.

Mr Howe said: “The democratic process surrounding the part Battersea Sports Centre plays in the wider Winstanley Estate ‘regeneration’ plan is a sham.

“The fundamental issue of why a cherished local community should have its heart ripped out has still not been fully discussed with the local community and, as far as I’m aware, openly debated in public.”

The Winstanley and York Road regeneration scheme plans to construct 2,000 new properties along with a leisure centre and health and education facilities.

Councillor Paul Ellis, cabinet member for housing, said: “This new site is needed to help enable the redevelopment of the Winstanley and York Road estates, backed by 70 per cent of respondents to a 2013 consultation, and to provide new council homes for social renting. It also extends our pledge to keep Battersea Sports Centre open for longer than was considered possible last year.”