Lancashire’s going for gold with new facilities

2:02pm Friday 29th August 2008

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LONG before Rebecca Adlington powered to two gold medals in Beijing’s spectacular water cube, and our cyclists humbled the rest of the world, plans were being drawn up for this area to share in the spoils next time around.

With impressive foresight, a group of experts set up to maximise Lancashire’s gain from the London 2012 games has chosen cycling and swimming as the county’s two ‘legacy sports’.

This is where efforts will be focused in the next four years — and a number of ‘sports villages’ are to be set up to be the centrepiece.

This will include a 50m Olympic standard swimming pool, which will probably be in Preston, and a specialist outdoor cycling centre — and it is understood this could be built in East Lancashire.

Existing sporting facilities, including the new sports college at Pendle Vale, could also be used to train athletes and schools will be urged to get involved.

Plans to develop Lancashire’s cycling facilities were welcomed by Steven Burke, who provided some local success in China when he took bronze in the men’s 4,000m Individual Pursuit.

Speaking as he was welcomed back to his home town of Colne, the 20-year-old said: “I’d definitely back it.

“We have been talking about getting something set up in the Pendle area and planning for the last few months and I have been involved with that.

“If we could get a circuit set up for riders, it would be great because it would encourage people to get involved with cycling.”

A key figure to the plans will be Brian Cookson, the president of British Cycling and Pendle Council’s executive director for regeneration, who is back from Beijing where he oversaw the team’s stunning haul of medals.

He said the planned Rossendale Adrenaline Gateway — a new £300,000 mountain bike course — would be vital to training mountain bikers and BMX riders for 2012.

“People have to understand Olympic medals do not just come about in the two weeks of the Olympics, they are the result of many years of preparation,” he said.

“And you need sporting facilities to be available for a long period of time.

“We have to look across East Lancashire at what facilities we have, and how we get young people involved.

For example we need to think of ways to make cycling on the road safer.

“We have got great countryside for mountain biking and BMX riding, and we are not far from Manchester and its velodrome.

"We need to get as many events as possible going in the next four years.”

Mr Cookson also singled out the proposed multimillion pound racecourse at Altham as a facility that could be used for training.

Funding could come from bodies like Sport England as well as local authorities and the regional development agency.

He added: “Some of it needn’t cost too much. Funding isn’t the biggest issue — the biggest issue is getting people to want to get involved.

“We are on a roll now, and we need to keep it going.”

The Lancashire 2012 steering group has been meeting since June 2007.

Made up of sport, tourism and economic leaders, its brief is to “make sure the people of Lancashire are inspired by London 2012.”

It says it “seeks investment, inspiration and resources to make sure that our county is left with a full and lasting legacy.”

The group, headed by Dennis Taylor, chief executive of the Lancashire Economic Partnership, reports to a North West 2012 group, which is responsible to the London Olympic Committee.

Adrian Leather, chief executive of Lancashire Sport Partnership, which is funded by the Sport England quango, sits on the steering group.

He said Lancashire’s Gallica elite swimming squad, which wins most national junior events and is coached by former Olympian Rob Greenwood, would be at the heart of the swimming drive.

The programme aims to have a swimmer in every Olympic final.

The 50m pool planned for Preston would also include retail facilities and be one of the planned ‘Olympic villages’, Mr Leather said.

He added: “We have a number of priorities for Lancashire, principally around swimming and cycling.

“We want to be high-profile in the way Manchester has been for cycling.

“We want to see a whole series of events like the Pendle cycle races across the county.

“It’s about promoting them and getting people to become part of clubs.

“We would like to see a specialist, outdoor, national-standard cycling centre in Lancashire, although I can’t say more about that at this stage.

“We are trying to leave a legacy of top sporting facilities, and sports villages should help that. It’s very positive so far.”

There could also be economic benefits to the area, according to County Councillor Niki Penney, who chairs Lancashire County Development Ltd, which is working to boost investment in the county.

The games are expected to bring a £2bn boost to the national tourism economy, and she said this could bring “untold” benefits to Lancashire.

She added: “We want Lancashire to be a national training ground.

“Everything seems to revolve around London these days, but we want to promote areas like East Lancashire, which has lots of facilities.”

A committee of county councillors is also looking at the best ways to benefit from the games.

The overview and scrutiny management committee was recently told Lancashire had the largest outdoor sports economy in the country, and concluded it would be important to promote Lancashire rather than the North West as a whole.

Chairman Coun Kevin Ellard said: “The Olympics aren’t just about London, and all the visiting athletes can’t just be accommodated in the South East.

“It’s all about pulling people out of London.”

A note of caution was sounded by former Olympic ace Craig Heap, who saw his plans for a £2m national gymnastics school near Reedley vetoed by council bosses because it was on green belt land.

Mr Heap, who now works in Newcastle, said: “If it had happened we would have been perfectly placed to cash in on 2012.

"But some sports are expensive to get off the ground.

“People have to leave East Lancashire to get to world-class facilities, and there are lots of other people pitching for things.

“But I am always keen to get involved in anything like this.”