Whats been happening in the last year? (to April '05)

1. 'Preferred Bidders' appointed - engineering firm of Byzak, in partnership
with S+P architects - see 'Byzak' below
2. In Sept of last year, Olympics spectators and viewers get to see a BIG course in operation - http://www.hydrostadium.com/angathenes.htm
and even better, see a Scottish Paddler - Campbell Walsh - win silver! http://www.campbellwalsh.com/
3. further work on business plan - This included the start of analysing the postal survey done by Scottish Paddlers in 2003(below)

Byzak

We held a competitive tender process over last year, and the successful engineers - Byzak - were appointed along with their partners S+P architects.

Byzak are a successful company based in Hamilton, and with a lot of experience in big hydrological projects. S+P are a London based Architect firm with a lot of experience of both designing and developing sports projects, including water-based activities. One of the key assets they brought to the bid is their development team, which is lead by playboater and slalomist Andy Laird and
includes Keith Ashton. Aussie firm Connel Wagner are in their team - CW helped build the Penrith 2000 Olympic course.

Byzak’s course design

The tender process was advertised widely in the relevant European journal, and attracted interest from over 12 companies. They included RJ MacLeod, George Leslie and Morrisons. These 4 were invited to tender - 3 did so. The
first 2 submitted, along with Byzak,. All companies knew that capital funds are still being sought - but it is a mark of the enthusiasm that the AWWC generates that this did not deter companies from applying.

The project team elected to go down the route of early tendering partly to
establish cost-certainty for the construction costs, which is more realistic when we take our business plan to potential major funders. The final price will depend on exactly what facilities we want but will probably be about £4.5 M

THANX TO -

Dave McWhirter - Lenzie CC; he is also Project manager for the £37M extension (south end) of the Kilmarnock M77 M-way; he drew up the extensive, detailed technical documents for the AWWC engineering bid process

Bill Boyd - Armour Construction - who provided independent and detailed
technical advice on the tendering process, and who participated and guided the interviewing process.

Without their help, the AWWC project could not have proceeded as far as it has.

The next steps

Byzak / S+P have identified the gaps in the project management that need to be plugged. These include further work on the business plan, consultations with stakeholders (including the social inclusion agenda), and discussions with potential major funders. The SCA is currently engaged in raising the £30k that this next step would cost.

When we have a good business plan, then we will be
- approaching major funders for the capital money
- ask paddlers to do some fundraising, which will be necessary both to get the facilities that we want, and to show a sign of commitment by Scottish Padddlers in the idea of an AWWC.
- Asking paddlers to do some lobbying. This is important – illustrated by the current major capital funding prograame of sportSootland. This is aimed at regional, multi-use sports halls, and thus excludes sports like canoeing from funding for capital projects. The SCA (with John Picken) have already met with sportScotland to discuss this anomaly.
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Note that we are not asking you to action the above at the moment, just to consider your ideas. Lobbying and fundraising need to be part of a properly co-ordinated plan, and we need firmer details in some areas of the project and a more detailed business plan.

By the way, Scottish paddlers have a new, important tool in their communication with the SCA, talking to each other, selling things and just hearing what’s going on – check out the new canoescotland.com website

Other courses. Fort William outflow – As you will know, this was one of the many developments pursued by the late and great Andy Jackson. It will be a facility complementary to the National Artificial WW Course at Strathclyde Park; will probably involve a couple of drops in a rebuilt channel just where the Aluminium smelter outfall flows into the sea.

You may remember a survey that we did in 2003, distributed through the pages of Scottish Paddler Magazine.To encourage you to return the questionnaires, we had sponsorship from Tiso, Lendal Stirling and Highland Canoes, and KOGG. The survey results will be available later in the summer, for those with and interest in the demographics and marketing of canoeing. Some of the survey info will inform the work going into the business plan.

The Artificial WhiteWater Course

An AWWC (Artificial WhiteWater Course) is an urban training site for rafting and canoeing, accessible to the general public, and a competition and training site for canoeists. We are aiming to build Scotland's AWWC at Strathclyde Park. Since May 2002 the project has been going through the next stage of development - outline design, business plan development and fundraising.

The SCA's campaign to create Scotland's National WhiteWater Course is now moving forward. We now have a team finalising the feasibility work and assessing capital funding sources; the outline design brief is being finalised and the project will go out to 'design and build' tender soon. Once the final price is known after the tender process is done, we'll be applying for capital grants, probably in late autumn.

The aim is a pumped artificial course, 400m+ long, with a drop of 4+m. A simple design modification means that a variety of channels with different flows, suitable for different classes of paddlers may be feasible. Other facilities will likely include a polo pitch, cafe, changing facilities, retail shop, boat storage and possibly the SCA headquarters.

The course will be beside the existing Strathclyde park watersports centre and the new Rowing Academy and indoor rowing tank - creating the defacto Scottish Inland Watersports Centre. This is probably the best site in Scotland - on the M74, on the edge of Glasgow and within easy reach of Edinburgh and Central Scotland.

We had spent the last year checking out other sites in Central Scotland - this was a useful process as it identified capital cost savings and it brought in partners that have helped develop the project further.

An important issue for the project team is the opportunity that it will give children, especially those from less fortunate areas, to easily access this exciting outdoor adventure activity.

This web site outlines our vision for what facilities the course will bring to Scotland and how the project will proceed. Please read on and feel free to give us any feedback or contact us if you can offer any assistance.

Thanks,

Andy Watt, Project Director
andy@clydesmill.org.uk

The Project

The project is co-ordinated by the Scottish Canoe Association, the governing body of the sport in Scotland. The project is supported by Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire (previously the Lanarkshire Development Agency), SportScotland, North Lanarkshire Council, LandTrust (landfill tax credit scheme) and Pattersons of Greenoakhill.

please mail any comments to info@clydesmill.org.uk

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