News / Lawrence Weston
New £14m cycling centre planned for Lawrence Weston
A new £14m cycling centre is planned in north west Bristol to replace smaller tracks in the south of the city.
The Bristol Cycling Centre would include space for people to learn how to ride a bike in a traffic-free area, and a closed-road cycling circuit for racing.
Bristol City Council bosses are hoping to build the new centre at Henacre Open Space in Lawrence Weston.
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The new cycling centre would replace the current Bristol Family Cycling Centre, a smaller track in Hengrove Park. That site would then be used for building new housing.
The new cycling centre would replace the current Bristol Family Cycling Centre – photo: Google
In a recent cabinet report, Hannah French, deputy head of policy and public affairs, said: “The Bristol Cycling Centre will be a multi-million-pound capital bid to construct and operate a new purpose-built regional cycling centre, incorporating a competition-standard cycling track, at Lawrence Weston.
“The current, much smaller cycling centre at Hengrove Park will close when that site is developed for housing, and services will then transfer to the new, larger centre at Lawrence Weston.”
Bristol City Council is planning to bid for about £13m from the government’s Levelling Up fund to pay for the new cycling centre.
The council is also planning to bid for at least £12m for a regeneration project in Filwood, which has been on the cards since at least March 2012, but long delayed. Cabinet is due to approve the bids on Tuesday.
French added: “The cycling centre will be an inclusive facility with a core cycling programme that enables new and existing riders to improve their riding, skills, confidence, fitness and wellbeing.”
It will also be the focus for supporting more specialist programmes, such as social prescribing and physical rehabilitation.”
As well as Levelling Up funding, the council is also planning to use about £1.3m of income from the Clean Air Zone, which is due to come into force in September.
It’s expected the centre could open by 2024.
Alex Seabrook is a local democracy reporter for Bristol.
Main photo: Bristol Family Cycling Centre
Read more: Olympic BMX Bronze medallist opens cycling track in South Bristol
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