First improvements to Bath BMX track completed

BMX riders in Bath are enjoying the first improvements in a £146k project to enhance the Bath BMX Club track at Odd Down.

New safety gates and railings, staging pens and a tarmac road are among the improvements that have already been completed at the club following a funding award from the Bath Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).

The project will enable more residents to access BMXing as a sport through the provision of loan equipment. Training opportunities will be improved with new race timing equipment, upgrades to clubhouse facilities include sustainable toilets and bike tools will be available for residents to use on a 24/7 basis.

Bath & North East Somerset Council is responsible for allocating Bath CIL funds to support local projects. It has allocated £100k in Bath CIL funding to the Bath BMX Club project and an additional £40k from developer contributions, with the club contributing the remaining £6k.

Councillor Kevin Guy, council Leader, visited Bath BMX Club to view the new facilities on 12 April. He said: “These are excellent improvements to the amazing community facility that Bath BMX Club provides, with much more to come. I hope more residents will be encouraged to join regular users of the track and give this exciting sport a try. It’s so important that a wide variety of leisure facilities are on offer across the district to enable more people to take part in physical activity and I’m delighted that the council has been able to support this popular club.”

Matthew Turner, Vice-Chairman at Bath BMX Club, said: “We are incredibly grateful to the council for providing this much needed funding. The improvements we have been able to make to the track have really helped modernise the site, make it much safer to use and safeguard it as a regional level BMX race track for many years to come. The track remains free to use by the public at all times when not being used by the club. All the equipment we have purchased with these funds will remain free to hire during our sessions helping to keep the sport as accessible to as many people as possible. Work starts shortly to rebuild, reshape, and resurface the berms and we currently only have enough funds left to do the first two. To complete all three berms in the most cost-effective way we need another £15,000, donations to the club can be made via our Just Giving page.”

The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is a planning charge, introduced by the Planning Act 2008 as a tool for local authorities in England and Wales to help deliver infrastructure to support the development of their area.

From the overall Community Infrastructure Levy that is collected, Bath receives 15% of the receipts, which are allocated to The Neighbourhood Portion of CIL for Bath. In the absence of a parish council for Bath, the council has a statutory responsibility to allocate the funds.

The Community Funding Projects Map shows gives details of all the projects that have been funded across the city. 

Find out more about Bath BMX Club