Matthew Ball is a Trustee of Linlithgow Community Development Trust and founder of West Lothian Clarion Cycling Club.
Matthew has been named Community Champion of the Year for Sport and Recreation, celebrating his contribution as a cycling coach in West Lothian and his role in leading the creation of the West Lothian Cycle Circuit, a new £1.25m outdoor cycling facility which opened in Linlithgow in May 2023.
Find out more: https://www.cycling.scot/news-and-blog/article/charity-empowering-more-women-to-cycle-recognised-as-scotlands-cycling-champion-awards-are-announced
The winners of the 2023 awards were announced at the Cycling Scotland conference in October 2023.
The awards are promoted and presented jointly by Cycling Scotland, Cycling UK, Scottish Cycling and Sustrans Scotland.
I am Matthew B I’m a board member of L lithco Community Development trust we’re at the westan cycle circuit in L lithco so the litho development trust has been going for about 12 years and over that period one of its main projects has been the West lordian cycle circuit which is a 1.25 million pound facility which has now been built this year the West loean cycle circuit is a 1 km tarmac circuit made up of four loops and it’s fenced all the way around and it’s flood lit for all around use um and it’s open to the public and clubs and organizations to use the circuit opened in May and so since then we’ve had about 5,600 people using it people who haven’t even been on the bikes before coming out and learning how to ride the bikes H H keep it going keep it going H up up up as you can see here tonight we’ve got um a kids session going on which is a sports session for for kids who want to um move up the pathway and it’s just been an amazing and positive experience with the people involved I’ve won the award for community champion for sport and Recreation it’s a great honor um for me personally because it’s been it’s been quite a lot of invested time in this project I’m I’m part of a big team who’s helped deliver this circuit it’s an award for the whole development trust really who who produced and delivered this circuit and then I’ll about 14 or 15 different clubs in Scotland donated money and you’ll see here that West Lo and Clarion who are running this session tonight um were are a main stakeholder without them being here this circuit wouldn’t really [Music] happen having this space where people can ride safely on the bikes train build confidence and develop the skills is going to be a transformative SP face