New Facilities at Minet Park for Hillingdon Cycle Circuit

30th of April, 2006

Funding from Sport England, supported by the London Marathon Charitable Trust has enabled work to start this week, on a new storage building and approach road for Hillingdon Cycle Circuit in Springfield Road, Hayes. This funding  totalling £194,000 - was organised by British Cycling, the controlling body for the sport in the UK.

The building is located next to the purpose made cycle racing track and will house the equipment used for training and coaching sessions by the Hillingdon Slipstreamers children?s cycling club, together with safety and race control equipment. The project includes providing a smooth tarmac surface to the access road from Springfield Road and the provision of power and water services to maximise the use of the new building, which includes a cycle maintenance workshop.

The grants were made to the Hillingdon Cycle Circuit Users Group, with the main part through the Sport England Community Club Development Programme, funded in turn by the National Lottery. Planning permission was granted in 2002 but the funding has only recently become available. The Users Group comprises a wide range of clubs regularly organising events at the circuit, including non-cycling disciplines such as Nordic Skiing (on roller-skis).

The building was designed to respect its setting in Minet Country Park, so it incorporates a number of sustainability features, including a living roof and cladding of oak railway sleepers over a carcass of reclaimed steel shipping containers. A demountable fabric canopy is included, which provides a large sheltered area for use during all seasons. Construction will take about three months so the building will be in use towards the end of the summer. The architects are Christopher Richards and Andrew Postings of Acanthus LW, both regular users of the Hillingdon Circuit. The contractor is Broadland Construction of London and Norwich.

Chairman of the Users Group, Stuart Benstead, comments: "We are delighted that the huge use of this community sports facility, which caters for thousands of users each year, has been recognised by Sport England and the London Marathon Charitable Trust. Their support for this project enables us now to look forward to investigate how the other facilities can be brought up to modern standards, particularly the provision of showers - there being virtually no washing facilities at the moment. Thanks are also due to the patience of the LB Hillingdon and the Friends of Minet Park in allowing the stark appearance of the temporary storage containers to rest in place while this project was pursued."

"This allows us to continue more efficiently our very heavy programme of events catering for all ages from three to 73+, our Slipstreamers children?s club meeting every Saturday morning of the year, events for athletes with disability, and to encourage people to the cycling pastime in the interests of their general health. At the other end of the scale we have coaching for talented young people who have Olympic medal aims to emulate the Olympic gold, silver and bronze medals won by Bradley Wiggins, who started his career at the age of 12 on the nearby (then unopen) Hayes By-Pass, the forerunner to the circuit."

Interim Chief Executive of Sport England Stephen Baddeley said:
"We are delighted to make this award to Hillingdon Cycle Circuit. The facility is key to the local development of cycling and we are committed to making sure that the club continues to provide access for the community. The Community Club Development Programme represents a new way of working for Sport England whereby national governing bodies are involved in the initial selection of possible projects that should receive funding based on their own strategic plans. Hillingdon Cycle Circuit was identified by the British Cycling Federation for investment and we are pleased to support this investment."

"The Community Club Development Programme is an innovative way of helping to ensure that community clubs -  the heart of grass roots sports development in the country - receive the capital investment they need. This is central to achieving our vision of England becoming the most active and successful sporting nation in the world."