Dear members
Further to my rather hurried email last night I now am able to share a little more information and let you know what progress has already been made.
The situation is that British Cycling appointed an independent building surveyor to undertake a condition survey of the track and the infrastructure.  In addition, in the past week, a risk assessment has been carried out by the British Cycling Cycle Sport department.  The findings of these separate exercises conclude that, in its present condition, the track, surrounds and fence are not safe for hosting formal British Cycling cycle sport events.
The next stage for British Cycling is for them to discuss the upgrade recommendations with the Council.  There is no formal time-scale at the moment as the discussions between British Cycling and the Council are still at a very early stage.
It has been confirmed by British Cycling that training and coaching sessions will still be permitted once certain defined actions have been taken.
John Wann and Andrew Pitt, along with representatives of Reading track league have spent yesterday evening and today working with the stadium staff to get these actions completed and it is tonight confirmed that Palmer Park is back in business as a training venue.
As Andrew Pitt has just announced, the planned training session this Saturday (21 March) WILL go ahead, albeit with some modification.
THANK YOU to all members, parents and friends who have contacted various members of the committee over the past few hours to offer support and assistance.  It is very much appreciated and shows, once again, what a great club Palmer Park Velo is!!
As I said yesterday, we have contacted British Cycling and the Council to urgently request further information.  Until we have more clarification we must wait, frustrating as that obviously is.
However, Andrew Pitt has tonight spoken again to the stadium manager and they now have a copy of the report.   We understand that tomorrow the council staff will start working on the details of a plan – what, how, who and, importantly when the required things can be done.
The key thing at this point is to continue to work in an open partnership with the Council and other track users and help where we can to ensure that everything gets sorted as quickly as possible.
As soon as we have more news, or indication of what actions we can take to help get the track back up to racing standard, we will seek to mobilise all those who are able to help, in whatever ways are possible.
Many of you will be wondering what is going to happen about the omnium meeting scheduled for 9 May.  Chris Boulton and Andew Pitt have already been in touch with the track at Bournemouth and, at the moment, it looks likely that the meeting will transfer to there.  Chris will give you further information as soon as he can.
The committee has asked Chris Boulton, Chris Macleod and Andrew Pitt to be the 3 main contacts for all matters relating to BC, the Council, the stadium and race events.
John Wann, as head coach, is co-ordinating the coaching response.
Best wishes
Fiona