Meeting to discuss plans for new bike track in Wellingborough in honour of Dylan Holliday as organisers hoping to get community project off the ground
A meeting is to be held at St Mark’s Church in Queensway, Wellingborough to discuss plans for a new off-road bike track near Shelley Road.
On Monday, June 3 from 6pm, people can attend the meeting to discuss ideas, ask questions to those leading the project, and offer their help by joining a soon-to-be formed committee to help make the project a reality.
The proposal is being handled by Community Interest Company ‘Together Connect NN’, which is headed up by Ben Lewis, the vicar of the church and Paul Cunningham, the community manager at HMP Five Wells.
Paul Cunningham, director of Together Connect CIC said: “Kids are always going to drive these motorbikes, it’s a passion, and it also teaches ownership.
“It’s taking the anti-social behaviour away and hopefully as a group it will teach them to look after their bikes. Just because you’ve got a bike it doesn’t mean you know what you’re doing.
“I go to a lot of council meetings where they talk about what kids want, and I always say ‘so where are the kids?’ It’s giving them something they want, that’s empowering them and is run by them.
“The whole idea is that I want to put a committee together, I really want the community on it. It’s their patch and where they live. We’re going to need volunteers to help make the ‘nitty gritty’ decisions.”
The initial proposal was put together in January 2022, but it has taken a while to move to the next stage, and now the project is on the look-out for people to volunteer their time to help get it off the ground.
Just off Park Farm Road, Wellingborough, the site would take advantage of an existing layout which is currently not in use but ‘won’t need much actual graft to get it to what it should be’.
It is situated just metres from where Dylan Holliday was tragically killed in August 2021, and hopes to be ‘a lasting legacy’ to him, as the hobby was something he held dear.
The plan is to lease the land from North Northamptonshire Council, whereby it will be solely used for the benefit of the community and thus will not make a profit, as bosses insist that all income will be invested back into the project.
Organisers are expecting it to be a busy night, as people from all backgrounds are invited to next week’s meeting.