Local MP Darren Chester has thrown his support behind a community campaign to get a bike pump track for Heyfield.
Mr Chester met with secretary of the Heyfield Community Representative Group Glenys McBride and Mick McKinnon from the group’s Youth Precinct Committee last month, before social distancing and public gatherings were restricted.
Heyfield Community Representative Committee is leading the push to expand the community facilities for children, teenagers and families in Heyfield. The committee wants to create a youth precinct in Apex Park incorporating the current skate park and a new bike pump track.
Mr Chester is a strong advocate of infrastructure projects that encourage people of all ages to be more active.
“There are a number of projects under construction or nearing completion in Gippsland that encourage people to get outside and exercise,” Mr Chester said.
“Among them are the Traralgon to Morwell Shared Pathway and the new exercise stations to be installed along the foreshore at Loch Sport.
“A pump track would give children and other young people a safe place to develop their riding skills and encourage them to be more active, more often.”
A pump track is an undulating circuit with banked turns and other features which allow riders can control their speed by pushing on their bikes in an up-and-down movement, rather than pedalling.
Mr Chester is investigating potential Federal Government funding sources to support the project.
