The Velodrome in Welwyn Garden city has been a vital sporting facility for the region, for many decades. It has received a number of facelifts over the years, and we find ourselves at a time where we need to raise vital funds to bring the facility back to a reasonable standard. There is much more that we would like to do – but this call for help is the start.
The velodrome hosts a Friday Track League, national BC Youth Omnium, Open track meets and is a key training facility accessed by a number of cycling clubs, schools and other organisations. As the only velodrome between Derby and Stratford, it is essential that we protect and maintain the facility for current and future cycling enthusiasts and up-and-coming young talent.
Welwyn Wheelers is the club where Laura Kenny (nee Trott) started her journey, before becoming one of the UK’s greatest Olympic medal winners. We’ve had a number of riders that have made it into the GB Cycling Team and professional teams and we currently have 4 of our young riders on the GB (Olympic) Development Apprenticeship or Olympic Development Programme. We are super proud of these achievements – all of this is achieved through the fantastic dedication of volunteers. We are a club that breeds success and we need to maintain and further develop our facility to enable us to continue to provide this talent to GB Cycling.
The tarmac velodrome surfaces were fully replaced in a major build project about 15 years ago. Exposed to the British climate, the surface has gradually weathered. To avoid further deterioration, which would eventually need another major rebuild, we are engaging contractors to apply a treatment to the tarmac surface. We expect this treatment will extend usable life for 10 years. The treatment (slurry-coating) has been used before on parts of the tarmac surface, and work on the whole velodrome can be completed in 1-2 weeks.
Cost will be approximately £35,000 Greenwich Leisure (GLL), operator of Gosling Sports Park, are contributing to the work, but there is a deficit which we need to raise. Welwyn Wheelers CC have started a Track Resurfacing Fund to raise the remaining finance and any contributions you are able to make would be hugely appreciated. This project is just a part of the improvements that we would like to make to our facility and we are working with British Cycling.
Works need to be completed in warm conditions, so Track League and other activities will be interrupted during a period this summer, but we hope to limit this to 2 weeks during early August, allowing racing and training to return to a newly resurfaced track in late summer. Exact dates will be notified when finalised.
We appeal to anyone wishing to benefit the future of cycle sport in Eastern England, to contribute to this Fund.
Please make donations via our Just Giving page at this link
or contact treasurer@welwynwheelers.org.uk for bank account details to make direct electronic transfer. We do have a charitable status so any donations would benefit from Co tax relief if you are donating as a business. If, due to unforeseen events, work cannot be completed in 2019 (or as a contingency in 2020), donations will be returned.
Many thanks in advance.
Andrew Brown – Chairman, Welwyn Wheelers CC