Organisers behind the West Lothian Cycle Circuit have raised £30,000 through a 4 week crowdfunding campaign, not only that, they did it with 2 days to go before the campaign closed.

The money raised by the crowdfunder will be used to erect 27 floodlights around the perimeter of the circuit, so that cycling can continue all year round, throughout the whole day.

Over £0.5million has been raised to date and planning permission has been granted. The community-led project, managed by local charity, Linlithgow Community Development Trust, has almost got enough funds to build phase one, a 0.5km tarmac traffic-free circuit featuring two loops

Matthew Ball, lead volunteer, said “We are overwhelmed by the response, the total just kept going up and up! We are so grateful to all 400 of our crowdfunder backers who helped us to achieve the £30K target.

Donations were made by people as far away as London and Spain, but it’s the local community who really got behind our campaign”

“We would like to extend huge thanks to everyone who has shown their support via pledges, donating rewards or helping out behind the scenes.”

The campaign received sizeable donations to enable us to reach the target. These include West Lothian Clarion, Richard Docherty, Bill Young, The Fulton Family, Iain and Susan Elliott, Pedal Power, Deeside Thistle Cycling Club and Dunfermline Cycling Club. We are also thankful for previous contributions from local cycling clubs – Falkirk Bike Club, Falkirk Junior Bike Club, Edinburgh Road Club, Livingston Cycling Club and Kinross Cycling Club.

Mhairi McMahon, from Crowdfund Scotland said “coaching the West Lothian Cycle Circuit project has been very exciting! It’s the biggest project that we’ve seen as part of the Crowdfund Scotland initiative and we’ve loved seeing their campaign succeed”.

The cycle circuit is one of the flagship projects of local charity Linlithgow Community Development Trust. The Trust aims to make Linlithgow a better place to live and work through a community led plan of action and support to local initiatives.

Pamela Barnes, Development Worker for Linlithgow Community Development Trust, said “This is a great achievement for the Trust and all of the West Lothian Cycle Circuit Project team volunteers. Thank you to everyone who has supported the project to date!

We are really grateful for the ongoing support from our main funders, West Lothian Council, SportScotland and Scottish Cycling. We are now in discussions with them to finalise funding so we can push ahead with building phase 1 of the circuit as soon as possible. We anticipate construction commencing later in the Summer and look forward to the circuit being open to the public by Spring next year.”

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