Despite delays due to COVID-19, Hereford is still on course to get a dedicated cycle track at Hereford Leisure Centre.
A post shared on the New Cycle Circuit for Hereford Facebook page earlier today said:
Hereford City Council c/o Cllr Jim Kenyon
Hereford Cycle Track – Update
From Halo Leisure:
I am writing to update you on the cycle track project at Hereford Leisure Centre and to once again thank you for your ongoing support.
In March 2020 the project was provisionally awarded £500,000 from Sport England through the British Cycling “Places to Ride” funding programme. With £200k committed from Herefordshire Council this bought the total financial support to £750k.
Facility closures due to lockdowns and furloughed staff have resulted in fewer Halo resources being available to dedicate to the project. This together with slower response times from new funding sources has meant some slippage in the planned timeline for the Cycle Track (2020-21)
In late December 2020 we were informed that we are on the shortlist for funding from the Town Improvement Plan, we have requested £684k to complete the funding package and deliver both phase one and phase two of the project at the same time.
We hope that you can understand the issues that we have experienced that were in most part, out of our control and would like to assure you that we are very committed to the delivery of this project and are still excited about the impact the cycling facility can have on getting more of local and wider community more active more often.
If you would like more detailed information about the project please do not hesitate to contact us and we can discuss this further.
Kind Regards,
Scott Rolfe CEO – Halo Leisure
Richard Preece – Business Development Manager Halo Leisure
Hereford City Council has awarded £50,000 to this project which makes it up to the £750,000 stated in the letter.
The British Cycling money needs to be carried over to the next financial year and they’re meeting on the 15th February to decide that “so fingers crossed”
If that is agreed it means we have all the funding required to deliver this, it has been a long hard road but I feel the end is in sight and safe in Ritchie’s hands.
