The Andover Mission

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In the centre of Andover stands a former public-toilet building that is no longer serving the community.

It is separate from the privately owned former Sainsbury’s building nearby.

Rumble Bee Fight Back Club wants to bring this smaller, disused building back to life.

Our mission is to ask Test Valley Borough Council to transfer it to the Rumble Bee project for £1—or provide an equivalent secure, long-term community lease at a peppercorn rent.

We would transform it from a forgotten public convenience into a small but powerful community gym, dojo, wellbeing centre and place of belonging.

The Andover Advertiser recently reported serious concerns about young people gaining access to the nearby derelict former Sainsbury’s building and climbing onto its roof.

Police attended several reports, while the council warned that derelict buildings can be unstable and dangerous.

We are not identifying, blaming or making allegations against any individual young person.

We are asking a different question:

What safe, affordable and meaningful opportunities are available to them instead?

Moving young people away may solve a problem for an afternoon.

Giving them somewhere to train, belong, learn and become responsible could help change the direction of a life.

Before Rumble Bee Fight Back Club had its present name, logo or scale of ambition, there was an earlier idea called Sonny’s Gym.

Sonny’s family approached Test Valley Borough Council about acquiring the former public-toilet building for £1 and turning it into a free community gym.

The £1 proposal was declined. A commercial rent running into thousands of pounds was discussed instead.

Sonny and Leo were young, their families lived from one payment to the next, and the boys’ pocket money was not quite ready to finance a town-centre property.

The idea could not proceed.

But it did not disappear.

It grew.

Sonny’s Gym became Rumble Bee Fight Back Club: a bigger, stronger and more sustainable plan combining fitness, mentoring, healthy living, confidence, discipline and belonging.

We are therefore asking Test Valley to look at this building again—not simply as a property with a commercial rental value, but as a potential community asset capable of producing lasting social value.

Rumble Bee proposes transforming the building into a distinctive black-and-gold community training centre.

Subject to surveys, funding, planning permission and professional design, the existing roof could inspire a Japanese dojo-style form, reflecting the club’s principles of discipline, respect, honour and self-control.

The walls could carry Rumble Bee artwork and the Member Code.

The building would be bold enough to inspire young people but welcoming enough for parents, families and vulnerable adults to feel safe entering.

It would be small enough for properly managed class sizes while remaining large enough to provide different activities throughout the day.

An illustrative programme might include:

• 6am – Meditation and calm beginnings
• 8am – Weights and strength training
• 10am – Judo and disciplined movement
• 12pm – English boxing and controlled confidence
• 2pm – Healthy food and practical life lessons
• 4pm – Young people’s confidence sessions
• 6pm – Family fitness and wellbeing
• 8pm – Adult training and peer support

The final programme would be designed with qualified coaches, safeguarding professionals, local families and future members.

Nothing would open until it was properly funded, insured, staffed and safe.

“Fight Back” does not mean revenge.

It does not mean teaching young people to fight in the street.

It means fighting back against fear, isolation, poor health, lost confidence, unemployment and the belief that your future has already been decided for you.

Members would learn:

• Respect before strength
• Self-control before confrontation
• Courage without cruelty
• Confidence without arrogance
• How to leave dangerous situations
• How to protect themselves and others
• How to ask for help
• How to become part of a community

We train to protect, not to bully.

Rumble Bee will welcome frightened people and victimised people.

It must also be willing to welcome young people whose conduct has frightened, frustrated or harmed others—provided they enter peacefully, accept the Code and genuinely want to change.

That does not remove accountability.

It adds opportunity.

If society tells a young person that they are nothing but trouble, we should not be surprised when they begin acting as though trouble is all they can become.

Rumble Bee believes something different:

No baby is born bad.

Every child begins with potential.

Circumstances, fear, neglect, poverty, pressure and bad choices can bury that potential—but they do not necessarily destroy it.

Inside Rumble Bee, people will not be permanently defined by the worst thing they have done or the worst thing that has happened to them.

They will be judged by the conduct they choose now.

We are not claiming that one gym can eliminate every act of antisocial behaviour.

We are saying that prevention deserves the same seriousness as enforcement.

Police, schools, families and councils often meet young people after something has already gone wrong.

Rumble Bee aims to reach them earlier—with structure, exercise, mentoring, boundaries, friendship and somewhere they are expected to contribute positively.

You cannot police somebody into discovering their purpose.

But the right community may help them find it.

The £1 request is symbolic, but the responsibility would be real.

Rumble Bee is not asking Test Valley to pay for an untested fantasy or simply hand a building to two young people.

Any transfer would need to be made to an appropriately governed charitable organisation, with responsible adult trustees and suitable legal protections.

Before taking occupation, Rumble Bee would need to develop:

• A building survey and feasibility study
• A fully costed refurbishment plan
• Planning and Building Regulations proposals
• Accessibility and inclusive-design measures
• Asbestos, fire-safety and structural investigations
• A safeguarding framework
• Insurance and security arrangements
• A sustainable business and fundraising plan
• Qualified staffing and coaching arrangements
• Clear community-use commitments

The transfer could include restrictions ensuring that the property remains in community use and provisions allowing the council to recover it if the project fails to deliver.

Rumble Bee would then raise the money needed to repair, transform and operate the building responsibly.

Give us the opportunity to prove what this building could become.

Let Sonny, Leo, their future trustees and the people of Andover develop a proper community proposal.

Judge it on its evidence, safeguarding, financial plan and public benefit.

Test Valley’s own vision describes an Andover that is social, inclusive, ethical, enterprising and equipped with facilities for young people and families.

Rumble Bee could put those words into one small building.

We are asking residents, parents, businesses, coaches, professionals and young people to support our request:

Transfer the disused former public-toilet building to Rumble Bee Fight Back Club for £1—or provide an equivalent secure community lease—so it can be transformed into a free and affordable centre for strength, discipline, wellbeing and belonging.

One unused building will not solve every problem in Andover.

But it could become the place where hundreds of better stories begin.

The bravest people are not the ones who never get hurt.

They are the ones who get hurt and still stay good.

Do not simply move young people away from danger. Give them somewhere better to go.

They are not the enemy. They are the mission.