Children to benefit as bike group receives Lottery funding

The Alyth Hill Users Group (Ahug) has been awarded nearly £1,400 of Lottery funding which will help it continue growing.

It launched its bike club back in 2014 and has developed a relationship with the Forestry Commission that resulted in the group leasing land and securing funding to build Alyth Bike Park.

The latest backing from the Big Lottery Fund will help it develop the children’s bike club, supporting the cost of training new volunteers and providing more advanced training for existing helpers.

The group’s Norman West, described the funding as much needed.

“The Ahug bike club has grown massively in a short time and now regularly sees around 70 children riding mountain bikes every week,” Mr West said.

“The club’s growth has, however, been limited by the number of trained adult volunteers required to coach the kids and ensure their safety,” he added.

“Thanks to the Big Lottery grant, we will be able to train more of the volunteers we have and fulfil the demand for places in the club.”

Ahug was one of 500 groups that benefited from more than £3.8 million in National Lottery funds in the latest round of grants.

The community-based cash boost comes from the National Lottery Awards for All Scotland scheme.

This makes grants of between £500 and £10,000 to community, arts and sports groups.

For more information on community-based funding visit biglotteryfund.org.uk or call 0300 1237110.