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£30,000 to help folk get on their bikes in Fife

Councillor Mark Hood with his daughters, Lily and Daisy, and cycling development officer Kirsteen Torrance, left, and Sarah Roxburgh, head of community use schools in the area.
Councillor Mark Hood with his daughters, Lily and Daisy, and cycling development officer Kirsteen Torrance, left, and Sarah Roxburgh, head of community use schools in the area.

Storm-damaged facilities at Lochore Meadows Country Park will be improved thanks to a £30,000 award.

The popular park has a mountain bike trail and skills loop, but these resources were damaged by severe weather in 2011 and have been neither repaired nor replaced since.

And parts of the trail remain closed four years on.

Active Fife explained the money would help create a network of cycling trails for all abilities.

This funding will be used in conjunction with £30,000 area budget funding, which was awarded two years ago, and £69,000 Sportscotland Legacy funding given last April to enable the project to progress.

Cowdenbeath area committee chairman Willie Clarke said: “There is a growing momentum behind cycling in Fife.

“It’s an increasingly popular recreational activity for people of all ages, offering health benefits as well as being an environmentally friendly mode of transport.”

According to the Scottish Household Survey, cycling is one of the few sports which has seen a growth in participants.

There is a strong background of cycling in the Kingdom and it is the aspiration to promote the Meadows as a centre for excellence for the pastime.

Mr Clarke added: “The mountain bike trails at Lochore Meadows had been very popular before being severely damaged by storms during 2011.

“Cowdenbeath area committee is glad to support this project to rejuvenate this facility and ensure Fifers and visitors have access to high quality cycling facilities all year round.”

A survey carried out by Fife Coast and Countryside Trust, which manages the park, found 24% of visitors were interested in developing bike trails and family cycling trails.

As there are 500,000 visits to the park every year that represented “a significant number of people” according to outdoor learning manager Ali Dreyer.

Supportive of the scheme, Councillor Mark Hood said a significant amount of people left Fife every weekend to enjoy the sport in other parts of Scotland and better facilities might make them think twice.

The overall cost of the development is £160,000, and with the Cowdenbeath committee’s contribution £130,000 had been raised.

This would enable 80% of the first two phases to upgrade the skills area, improve existing trails and complete additional loops and build a “natural feel” trail on the north shore to be completed this spring.

Phase three, not part of the funded work, would see links to longer-distance rides outwith the park, to Lochgelly, Blairadam, Loch Leven and Lomond Hills.