# Whatever happened to the Harlow Velodrome?



## festival (5 Jun 2012)

Or to be more accurate, what happened to the millions of pounds when the site was sold?
I was having a sort out out at home and came across some stuff from the Harlow velodrome and It got me thinking.
In the days before the lottery fund, Olympic cycling success etc etc, Harlow Track was one of the few bright spots in British cycle racing.
Briefly, through a lot of dedication and hard work from those involved, a banked velodrome was built in 1976 and a thriving list of promotions held each year. There was even televised meetings and there were plans to expand the facilities, and then around 1990 ish the idea was to sell the land as it was now worth millions and use it to buy a cheaper plot and build a modern indoor velodrome nearby, a first for the UK.
The land was sold, the track demolished but the money, £3 million I believe disappeared and nothing ever happened.
The story just went cold, nobody involved wants to talk about it, some individuals made themselves scarce and nobody seems to care.
Now we are living in the Golden age of cycle racing in the UK and as time has gone by the majority of fans and riders don't even know the story of the Harlow track.
Can anyone throw some light on the mystery?


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## Andrew_Culture (5 Jun 2012)

Hmm, I'd love to know.


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## compo (7 Jun 2012)

Could be interesting to raise the question in the local paper.
This was all before my time in Harlow. Was the velodrome council or privately owned?


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## oldroadman (9 Jun 2012)

Owned by a trust of some sort. And the figure was closer to £4 million. Asking questions came to a stone wall of silence, although someone must know where the money went. "invested" and what happened to Maybe the embarrassment of poor financial management caused a silence.No names to be mentioned on a public forum, but I have heard one or two mentioned.
The point is, whatever really happened, the money seems to be gone, the land is probably not for sale and you would have a job to build a velodrome for £4 million anyway.


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## festival (12 Jun 2012)

oldroadman said:


> Owned by a trust of some sort. And the figure was closer to £4 million. Asking questions came to a stone wall of silence, although someone must know where the money went. "invested" and what happened to Maybe the embarrassment of poor financial management caused a silence.No names to be mentioned on a public forum, but I have heard one or two mentioned.
> The point is, whatever really happened, the money seems to be gone, the land is probably not for sale and you would have a job to build a velodrome for £4 million anyway.


 
Thanks, what you said is basically what I know and we probably could name the same individuals who have " invested " the money.
It was built in no small part due to the dedication of many unsung people and it is those people who gave there time and money to the cause that I feel for.


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## resal (30 Sep 2012)

Sorry so late to this. The BBC interviewed Willie Tarran at the time of the money becoming "out of reach". He was one of the principal trustees. It was all invested in America with time limits on when those investments could be encashed. Of course, at the time, property prices in the UK were racing along and then the local council went all unhelpful on them, refusing outline planning permission at any of the "cheaper" sites they suggested. So when the money became available there was no viable project anywhere to invest in. It all smacked of a failure to gets ducks in a row before signing. "Yes we will sell the land to a developer with plans to develop, provided that, in turn, we have permission to develop elsewhere." I have no idea on whether any of the money was ever repatriated or what became of it. Willie could tell us. However whilst it was very big beans at the time it was all taking place, given the annual UK Sport Lottery grant to BC now, and the SKY men's team contract, the sums are relatively modest. 

However what stuck in everybody's throat at the time was the years of decent donations so many cyclists had made to the "build the Harlow Velodrome" fund in the early 1970's. It did not seem you could go anywhere and not have the box put under your nose for a contribution. We paid, we got a bumpy track, but heck, no one was complaining because it was plus one, when everywhere else in the country we were losing tracks. Then the track was sold, somebody had a load of cash and suddenly a very select group of riders were posing in "Harlow Velodrome" outfits, nice bikes and kit and contributions to expenses and yet there was no Harlow Velodrome ! How did that work ? It went on for a couple of years, there were bits in Cycling Weekly (when it wrote about the sport rather than recount the sportives the journos do on their loaned bikes) asking uncomfortable questions and then the radio program on the BBC. Then the trail went dead. Willie Tarran is the man to tell us how it all ended.

Yes it was definitely the sense of outrage - the wider cycling community contributed - and yet only a narrow few seemed to have benefited.


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## themanof83 (19 Sep 2019)

A long time has passed since the last comments but here goes...

I'm just mooching around New Hall and it got me thinking about the potential to have an indoor velodrome come cycling centre on the seemingly abandoned land there. I for one would love to be involved in such a project close to home... Anyone have any knowledge of such a project being proposed, i.e. a return of Harlow's velodrome?

Interestingly, highly improbable I'd expect, but I'd like to know how much (or percentage) was raised by public donations originally?

Cheers.


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