£62,000 investment for new BMX track

DO you know your ‘berm’ from your ‘bottom bracket’?

No not dance moves or parts of your anatomy, but BMX terms.

Work started this week on the construction of a new BMX track facility in Phoenix Park, Runcorn. So better brush up on the lingo! Halton Borough Council has worked in partnership with Windmill Hill Big Local & Viridor Credits Environmental Company and the Landfill Communities Fund to secure funding for the construction of a £62,000 BMX pump track in Phoenix Park, Runcorn.

The council appointed Horticon contractors and works commenced on Monday, April 29 to secure the site area ready for the construction works.

Halton Borough Council’s executive board member for the physical environment, Cllr Ron Hignett, said: “It is anticipated that Horticon will be on site for six to eights weeks when we can then reveal a new facility for the youth of Halton to access.

“It will be a great new focal point for the park, which recently saw play equipment getting a disability friendly facelift.

“This is yet another good instance of Halton Borough Council regenerating the area.”

A pump track is a circuit of rollers, banked turns and features designed to be ridden completely by riders ‘pumping’ – meaning to create momentum by up and down body movements, instead of pedaling or pushing.

A council spokesman said it was hoped the facility would be open by July 2019 and in time for the summer holidays.

*Berm: A corner on a track built up on the outside of a turn to create a banked curve.

*Bottom Bracket: The mechanism at the bottom of the bicycle frame, which holds the spindle and crank.

BMX started in the early 1970s when children began racing their bicycles on dirt tracks in Southern California, drawing inspiration from the motocross superstars of the time.