British Cycling

NEWS FOR JULY 2003

Harvey Hadden Velodrome Closure Statement

As many of you will now be aware, Nottingham City Council have decided to close the Harvey Hadden Track. This is their statement on the closure.

"Nottingham City Council has been working for the past 18 months alongside representatives from the British Cycling Federation, Sport England, UK Athletics and Notts Athletics Club to consider the future of Harvey Hadden Stadium.

As a result of a feasibility study carried out over that time, Nottingham City Council has decided to go forward with an athletics-based development that has received funding from the Community Athletics Refurbishment Fund.

The improvements necessary for this development mean that the current layout of the stadium is no longer feasible, due to the need to relocate the jumps area to the outside of the athletics track for safety reasons. This will necessitate the decommissioning of the stadium’s cycle track. At this early stage, it is anticipated that this will happen in October.

The feasibility study aimed to identify the development needs of both athletics and cycling. However, it showed that the current cycle track would need significant investment in the near future and that any money that may become available would be better spent on providing facilities that would more fully satisfy future needs of the BCF.

It has been a very difficult decision to remove the cycle track, but the current format would not have allowed development of either sport, either physically or for increased programming requirements. With funding available to athletics, and with advanced development plans for the club and sport, it has been decided that this opportunity had to be taken to create a county venue for athletics.

Nottingham City Council has offered to work with BCF officers to look at alternative sites to develop new facilities to meet both short-term requirements and longer-term strategic needs of cycling."

July 22nd 2003