Sport England - Movement Fund has provided £5,000 of match funding
Help rebuild our bike track at Victory Park!
Stroud, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
Aim
Our much-loved bike pump track at Victory Park is coming to the end of its life and we are desperate to replace it with a new track.
What is a pump track?
A pump track is a circuit of rollers, banked turns and features designed to be ridden using up and down body movements to generate momentum. As well as providing a lot of fun they help develop balance, co-ordination and bike-handling skills for all terrains. This encourages the inclusion of bike riding in everyday lives. Pump tracks can be used by all ages and abilities from very young balance bike riders to experienced teenagers and adults.
But they can do so much more! Pump tracks can have a profound effect on users’ mental health - by providing outdoor activity and exercise but also because of the communities that develop around them helping to improve personal confidence, encourage a sense of belonging and foster peer support and co-operation. This is increasingly important as we face a mental health crisis with our young people. Tracks have also been shown to reduce anti-social behaviour.
Bike tracks are few and far between, so it’s important we bring this fantastic resource back to life for the benefit of our children and our community.
Why does the track at Victory Park need to be renewed?
Our track first came into being in the 1980s. What started simply as an area local youngsters rode their bikes around – enough for their tyres to create a track through wear – eventually developed into something much larger.
It has been updated from time to time, but it now needs a complete, professional rebuild to make it fit for purpose, more hardwearing and useable for years to come.
We have consulted with the community and support for renewing the track is overwhelming and riders who persevere in using the old track are desperate for the new track to be built as soon as possible.
Also looking forward to the new track are our lovely friends at Stroud’s fantastic Access Bike Project. Access Bike will deliver bike handling and maintenance skills at the new track from time to time. It will also offer the opportunity to access low-cost bikes and its youth mentoring project. We are thrilled to have Access Bike’s support!
Why are we crowdfunding?
We have been fundraising and looking for the right specialist bike track builder for many months. We have now found the right builder, but not quite managed to raise all the money - we need a minimum of £40,000 and we have a little under £30,000 made up of council’s own money along with grants and donations from a variety of other sources. This means we need at least another £10,000 to get the new track built.
Sport England has very kindly granted us a Crowdfunder match pledge of £5,000. So, if we are successful in raising at least £5,000 from our campaign, Sport England will top that up to the £10,000 we need.
Please note
While £40,000 will give us our new track, we can achieve more if we can raise more. This would include signage, more landscaping around the track or more track features.
How can you help?
Make a pledge – and perhaps claim one of the rewards kindly donated to support our campaign.
Spread the word – share our project on your social media pages as the more people we reach, the more support we will get.
Fundraise for us – if you would like to run your own fundraiser for the track, please use the contact project button at the top of the page to get in touch so we can help.
Offer a reward – Rewards encourage supporters to make pledges and can be pretty much anything, whatever you and your business are happy to donate. That might be coffees, haircuts, MOTs or dance lessons. Get in touch for a chat. You would be helping our community get its new track and you would be promoting your business to our community and beyond.
Who will build the new track?
The new track will be built by specialist contractor, B1KE. The old track will be dismantled and all existing materials reshaped completely before new aggregate is added to create the subbase. This will then be topped with compacted earth and a finer grade aggregate to create the surface.
Everything will be re-used – including organic matter. The new track will drain properly, and its edges dressed to blend into the landscape.
This illustration provides a conceptual representation of the new bike track. The final design may vary.
About Cainscross Town Council
Cainscross Town Council is a particularly proactive council and is committed to improving local amenities and supporting community initiatives. Our goal is to create a safe and inclusive environment where all members of the community can enjoy a good quality of life.
Our regular council work includes looking after four public parks and one nature reserve which are home to two pavilions, a community hall, four playgrounds, the bike pump track, a multi-use games arena, rugby and football pitches, a youth shelter, a willow arbour, bike stands, benches and picnic tables. We also look after allotments, bus shelters, litter bins, notice boards and a public loo.
We are consulted by the district council on planning applications, by highways and for many other projects and issues which affect our community. We work in partnership with Stroud District Council, Gloucestershire County Council, other parish and town councils, other organisations and charities as well as Neighbourhood Wardens, the Police and PCSOs – all on behalf of our community.
And in addition to all this we run monthly community lunches, community quizzes, summer and Christmas events, community information events, weekly walking groups and a book swap. These are all free of charge on a donate if you are able and want to basis. We also disseminate information on community opportunities and help community groups and associations network or find support and funding.
Our four office staff and three park rangers work out of The Pavilion in the Park in Victory Park. Any member of the community is welcome to drop by and see us during office hours if we can be of help.
We represent the following Stroud wards - Cainscross, Cashes Green East, Cashes Green West, Ebley and part of Dudbridge. We have ten councillors currently out of a possible 13. Councillors are unpaid, community-minded individuals who are either elected by the community or co-opted by existing councillors. The work carried out by councils is paid for by a Parish Precept which is collected with council tax.
This project successfully funded on 15th December 2024