A MARTIAL arts club are celebrating the successful completion of renovations to their clubhouse.

Braintree Aiki Budo Kai Club have been located at the Recreation Ground, Braintree, next to the Braintree Boxing Club for fourteen years.

They began work in February making improvements to their 'Dojo', or training hall, which used to be a squash court.

After a few repainting jobs over the years, and some asbestos that had to be removed, the club finally thought it was time to invest in a permanent upgrade.

Clive MacDonald, Chief Instructor for the club, said: "We moved into here in 2002, at that time the place was getting really old.

"The club have let us have a free reign of the place.

"We were starting to realise that the walls were getting very mouldy and something needed to be done.

"We decided to do the work ourselves, because unfortunately the trust do not have the money to do it.

"One of our members is a builder and he has donated a lot of his time, everybody in the club has taken part in the renovation.

"It has been difficult, we have had to fight the weather, but now it looks absolutely fantastic.

"We still need to get a little bit of furniture, but it is actually like a different place now."

The Dojo is also used by a local karate club and the group want it to be used more by the community in the future.

The club currently has around 30 members and their ages range from 14 to 65.

To find out more about the Braintree Aiki Budo Kai Club have a look at their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/BraintreeAikido.