Lawrence Weston cycling centre: Update on £14m project as more funds are applied for

More money is being applied for to pay for a new £14-million cycling centre 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 chiefs are hoping to build the new centre at Henacre Open Space in Lawrence Weston.

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.

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 £13 million from the government’s Levelling Up fund to pay for the new cycling centre - it comes after a successful £500,000 funding bid from the Government’s Zero Emission Transport City pot earlier this year.

The council is also planning to bid for at least £12 million 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, June 7.

Ms 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 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 £1.3 million 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.