A martial arts centre in Yate has been given a lifeline to resume training with appropriate social distancing thanks to a donation for new equipment from Barratt Homes.

The housebuilder at Ladden Garden Village, Yate, has donated £2,000 to help EPiC Martial Arts buy new mats and training equipment.

The high-quality mats are being used in a colour code system in Yate Parish Hall, where the sessions are held, to mark out spacing and allow training to resume indoors after four months of closure.

The club, which celebrated its fifth anniversary this week, has now been able to re-start sessions.

Barratt Homes made the donation as part of its commitment to supporting the local community where they are building new homes and facilities.

Ladden Garden Village is a new development in North Yate offering a range of homes.

Once complete, there will be a primary school, nursery, health centre and local shops as well as 32 acres of open space and sports pitches.

The investment from Barratt has enabled EPiC Martial Arts to buy 68 high quality training mats and is also helping them work towards opening up another club in Thornbury, where Barratt Homes is currently building a further 280 homes at Park Farm.

Matt Roberts, senior coach at EPiC Martial Arts said: "This donation has made a massive difference, allowing us to get back to training safely and giving the young people back that focus, inspiration and exercise they so sorely missed during lockdown.

"The colour code mats make it really clear where the safe distances are between people. And the extra investment will help us on our way to opening another club in Thornbury, bringing the opportunity of martial arts training and all the benefits that brings to more young people."

Andrea Pilgrim, sales director at Barratt Homes added: "At Barratt we are passionate about supporting our local communities so when we realised how much these children and young people were missing exercise, interaction and inspiration of these martial arts sessions we were really happy to step in and help.

"Sports and social clubs and classes like these are part of the fabric of a community.

"At Ladden Garden Village, we're building lots of community and sports facilities alongside hundreds of much-needed new homes, which will help give it a really strong sense of community and social connection.

"Matt and the team at EPiC Martial Arts are doing a fantastic job and we'd love to see these sessions in Thornbury too where we're building the new Park Farm development."

Barratt Bristol's community fund donates £1,000 a month to local causes in the communities where it is building homes. Support earlier this summer included donations to local foodbanks which have experienced unprecedented demand due to lockdown and the Covid pandemic.

To find out more about new homes from Barratt, visit www.barratthomes.co.uk or call 0330 057 6000.