An athletics club in Renfrewshire has secured additional land to develop a new £1.3 million indoor facility.

Kilbarchan Amateur Athletic Club (AAC) will receive more than 4,000 sq m of land after local councillors backed a Community Asset Transfer.

The new facility would house a 60m running track; horizontal and vertical jumps; pole vault; indoor throws cage- including javelin; club room; and strength and conditioning area.

It will be built alongside the outdoor track and field facilities at Linwood's On-X sports centre, allowing for year-round training.

Jim Goudie, Kilbarchan AAC Immediate Past President, said: "This development would offer us the opportunity to train in any weather, all-year-round, and make the On-X Centre a complete facility for elite and club athletes in Renfrewshire.


"We want to bring as many people we can into athletics and having this indoor facility will give people the chance to take up the sport, while keeping younger athletes from becoming disheartened with training sessions cancelled or in the pouring rain.

"We've had four Olympians pass through our club so far and we want to give our members the best possible chance to follow in their footsteps - and this facility would do just that."

Head of Development for scottishathletics, Colin Hutchison, added: "scottishathletics is delighted that Renfrewshire Council has agreed a Community Asset Transfer with Kilbarchan AAC. As the governing body for athletics in Scotland we are fully behind Kilbarchan's proposed facility development at the On-X in Linwood and are excited about the opportunities it will present for the club and athletics in Renfrewshire.

"The commitment from the club's volunteers to get the project to this stage has been phenomenal and we are all extremely grateful to the generous funders that are contributing to the project. The facility will be vital to continue growing athletics in Renfrewshire and the indoor facility will greatly enhance the club's capacity to develop their young athletes year-round."

The project has been allocated £500,000 by Renfrewshire Council to support the development.

The club will continue to identify funding opportunities to source the remaining financial support required to advance the project to the next stage.

(CM/JG)