UPDATE 22/12/16: Feasibility study has achieved its funding target!

Plans for a Bike Park Wales-style bike park in Cornwall have been revealed. There’s a long way to go yet but it could be a reality within two years.

A location has been found – somewhere hush-hush near Bodmin. The landowner has given their backing. The next step is funding a feasibility study.

UPDATE 22/12/16: Feasibility study has achieved its funding target!

As you can see from the post on the Bike Park Cornwall Facebook page, the response to the recent Crowdfunding survey was impressive. More than 1,700 people responded and £2,261 was raised.

Obviously this is not all of the £10,000 required. The rest of the money has been secured from private investors.

The feasibility should be published at the end of January 2017.

Original story

Feasibility study

The feasibility study fund is on the Crowdfunder website and has ten days left to get to its £10,000 target.

The Crowdfunder description elaborates the need for a feasibility study: “Anything of this scale requires proper planning and design input. The first part of this is to commission a professional and independent feasibility study. Without this and the associated consultation with regional decision makers and planning authorities, this project can not and will not get underway. Simply put it’s a condition we’ve been given and it’s non-negotiable.

“The current threat of closure faced by the superb Black Mountains Cycle Centre shows why it is important to go about the planning side of things properly. We are passionate about making Bikepark Cornwall a reality.”

Bikepark Cornwall

The project has existed for a while now and research has been ongoing for more than two years. The concept of Bikepark Cornwall – as its been dubbed – is to offer somewhere for gravity-fiends to ride.

Cornwall already has a few bike trail centres for beginners, intermediate and regular trail riders – such as Lanhydrock and Cardinham – so Bikepark Cornwall will be aimed much more at the uplifts and full-face brigade.

As is often the way these days, the best place to keep abreast of the news of Bikepark Cornwall is by Liking their Facebook page.

Speaking to Cornwall Live, Bikepark Cornwall’s Greg Robinson said: “We’ve spent months researching possible locations to create a new trail centre suitable for intermediate and advanced riders and we’re now confident we’ve found a great site.

“There is a lot of support from local riders for a more challenging trail centre and the next stage is to commission some detailed research. If the findings are favourable, we will be looking to start the process with the landowner and local authorities to develop a trail centre to complement the existing trails at Lanhydrock and Cardinham.”