A GYMNASTICS club has won the inaugural Lexicon Charity of the Year award after a turbulent voting process.

The Lexicon Charity of the Year award was shortlisted to three local organisations, the Bracknell Gymnastics Club, South Hill Park, and The Ark.

The four-step voting process ended with a vote on social media to decide the winner.

However, the vote was hijacked by spam voting less than 24 hours before the conclusion of the process, leaving The Lexicon no choice but to suspend the voting.

The votes were too close to call between the gymnastics club and South Hill Park, so both were given the opportunity to be named ‘Charities Of The Year’, while a donation would be made to The Ark.

Craig Titley, executive director (Acting Joint CEO) of South Hill Park, said: “All three charities delivered great campaigns and the public support was overwhelming. It was therefore disappointing for us all, that someone should void the vote with spam. A partnership with The Lexicon would be a great honour for any charity and vote rigging has put them in a very difficult position.

“Upon reflection, we decided to withdraw our application but remain grateful to both The Lexicon and all of our supporters and hope to re-apply for Charity of the Year 2019.”

This left the gymnastics club as the overall winner of the inaugural award.

Dr Peter Tranckle, club manager at Bracknell Gymnastics Club says: “We are so pleased to be working with The Lexicon, which we hope will significantly increase the awareness of gymnastics as a great way to keep fit, socialise and build self-esteem.

“And, with The European TeamGym Championships taking place in October 2018, The Lexicon will provide a fantastic platform for our selected gymnasts to fund raise the monies required to attend this event.”

Sue Boor, head of marketing at The Lexicon, insists the award will also be given out next year, as she hinted things may be ran differently.

She explained: “While we remain saddened that the social vote had to be suspended, we are very much looking forward to developing a programme of awareness and fund raising activity with Bracknell Gymnastics Club.

“We would like to thank all charities that applied and everyone who genuinely supported the charity of their choice by voting on social media. Needless to say, we will take the lessons learnt from this year’s search and do things differently next time.”