The Bike Skills Track
A number of young people in the village were concerned that older kids were not being catered for in the various playground renovation projects. Members of the group took these concerns on-board and after consultation with various groups in the village it was decided that a bike skills track would fill this gap.
The bike skills track project was completed in September 2000.
The group secured ENTRUST registration... a scheme which allows landfill operators to donate a percentage of their land-fill tax payments to local community projects which meet fairly tight requirements. The bike track equipment is made from recycled materials, the track was located in an unused and overgrown area of the park and it's location alongside the Glasgow - Irvine cycle route made it a perfect candidate.
Decisions - various ideas were discussed at the beginning... skate board park, half pipe, bike track etc. These options were put forward for discussion within the village and to the local Council. Estimates were obtained and the feasibility of the ideas studied. The budget after fundraising and grant searching was going to be around £20,000 so this alone discounted some options. Eventually the bike skills track stood out as the option which would fall within budget and provide a challenging facility for older children.
Design - design issues were discussed with the equipment manufacturers and suppliers. The local primary school allowed the group to go in for an afternoon and talk to the Primary 6/7 pupils. They were given costings of the various items of equipment and measurements of the site and they worked to produce suggested track layouts. A figure of eight layout was the most popular choice. The project team combined this layout with the most popular items of track equipment and came up with the final track layout.
Implementation - SUSTRANS were involved from the early stages of the project providing technical advice on the suitability of the site as the project group had no experience of path construction. They were employed to construct the path using materials donated by Tarmac and to install the equipment with the help of the local suppliers. Construction and installation took approximately 6 weeks to complete and 2 years on the final product has settled in well.