Cycle hub to relocate for new housing

The proposed cycle hub at Henacre Open Space

A cycling centre could move 10 miles away to make way for new housing, despite a campaign to save the existing site.

Bristol City Council has announced plans to build a £15m running and cycling facility on a former landfill site in Lawrence Weston, to replace the Bristol Family Cycling Centre in Hengrove.

The proposed hub, at Henacre Open Space, will provide training “across a much wider area” and deliver classes for disabled people, according to councillors.

But thousands of campaigners are opposing plans to build flats at the current site, which will become part of the Hengrove Park housing estate.

The project is expected to take three years and could leave some people struggling to access the new location, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

An equality impact assessment said: “The negative impacts of service closure and relocation would be extensive for some people, but beneficial to those in the north of the city.

"It will remove a popular and well-used service in the south of Bristol which may result in fewer people having the confidence to cycle in those areas.”

The council aims to increase the number of people who cycle across Bristol, partly to reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from cars.

They say the new hub will include areas to learn to ride, a one-kilometre competition track, a car park, and new and improved connections to the local cycle network.

A committee report said: “The temporary location at the Old Whitchurch Athletics Track in Bamfield is earmarked for housing development within the next three years.

"It will deliver an inclusive cycling community, offering programmes for skills improvement, social prescribing, and physical rehabilitation."