Campaigners rallying around Bristol running track
The site has been earmarked for housing
An open day will be hosted this bank holiday Monday on a doomed running track in South Bristol to show its benefit to the community. Campaigners are rallying around the athletics track where housing is planned in a bid to highlight how sports can help local neighbourhoods.
The Track is Back event, at the Whitchurch Athletics Track, will run from 10.30am until around 1pm on August 25, giving people a taste of different areas of the sport. Avon and Somerset Police is helping with the event, including a quirky opportunity to race a police officer.
Bristol City Council has given organisers the green light to run the open day. The council-owned housing developer, Goram Homes, is planning to build housing on the track, ending more than half a century of sport there. An alternative running track could however be built soon nearby.
John Pearce, who is leading the campaign to save the track, said: “We see this as a really positive step forward in getting more events happening at the track to benefit the local community. Things start at 10.30am and finish around 1pm with four athletics stations covering sprints, middle distance, agility and throwing.
“Bristol Olympian Vernon Samuels will also be coming as our special guest. He will be sharing his experiences of training at the Whitchurch Track, his Olympic experiences and how athletics can have a positive influence in so many areas of life. Plus there’s a special feature, ‘Cops and Robbers’ — come and chase a police officer over 100 metres.”
Support is also coming from the Concrete Therapy Running Club, who are co-ordinating the middle distance station, and Kinisi Run Hub, a new independent South Bristol running shop. Organisers hope that similar events to the open day could also be put on in future.
Mr Pearce added: “We are very grateful to Avon and Somerset Police who are supporting us with this event, which we hope will be the first of many. Thanks as well to Bristol City Council and the Bristol Family Cycling Centre for letting us use the track for this event.
“This is a small event to get things started but our long term vision is to get more things happening. It’s an amazing resource for the community that can provide huge benefits.”
The future of the running track was debated by councillors in City Hall earlier this summer. A local triathlon world champion, Chrissie Wellington OBE, said Bristol’s “sporting heartbeat is becoming increasingly faint”, due to the plans to build housing on the running track. Thousands have already petitioned the council to change Goram’s plans and keep the track in its place.
Councillors are now exploring alternative locations for a replacement running track that would be nearby and potentially part of a new housing development. Construction on the Whitchurch Athletics Track is part of the wider Hengrove Park development, and is expected to begin in a few years — so the track can still be used for a while yet, before developers build housing there.