The latest information on the Mountain Bike Innovation Centre project being taking forward in Innerleithen.
We plan to provide key updates to ensure the community is kept fully informed on this exciting project.
Latest news
20 December - Thank you to everyone who took part in our two engagement events in December 2024.
Over 100 people attended both the public meeting on 5 December and drop-in session on 11 December. The feedback received was extremely helpful and will allow us to continue to move forward with the project.
As indicated in the engagement events, the revised proposal is to seek approval to demolish the main building on the Caerlee Mill site. If approved, a planning application would then be submitted later in 2025 for a new Mountain Bike Innovation Centre in its place.
Following a meeting with consultees including Historic Environment Scotland, we are now expecting to submit the demolition application in early 2025 to allow additional information to be provided. This in turn should speed up the overall demolition and planning application process.
As a result, the follow-up community survey to the engagement events will now go live in January 2025, which will mean we can share the most up-to-date proposals for the new Centre.
5 December - Fresh plans have been shared with the local community aimed at taking forward the Mountain Bike Innovation Centre project at the Caerlee Mill site.
The revised proposals will see the removal of the main building on the Caerlee Mill site - with a demolition application due to be submitted next week - which will then allow a new building to house the Mountain Bike Innovation Centre on the same site to be created.
The commitment was shared with the local community at the latest public meeting we held in the town on Thursday 5 December.
A further drop-in session is due to take place on Wednesday 11 December from 5pm to 7pm in the Memorial Hall.
The news release issued on 5 December is available to read here.
26 November - We have two further public engagement events taking place in December to provide the local community with an update on the Mountain Bike Innovation Centre, and the Caerlee Mill site.
The first will be a public meeting held on Thursday 5 December from 6pm to 7pm, in the Church of Scotland on Leithen Road, Innerleithen. The location for the meeting was chosen following feedback regarding acoustics from the 23 September meeting.
This public meeting will allow us to provide an update on the good progress made since the 23 September public meeting, and what the next steps are expected to be.
A public drop-in session will then take place on Wednesday 11 December from 5pm to 7pm in the Memorial Hall, Innerleithen.
The drop-in session will provide the community with the opportunity to hear more from SOSE and architect Oberlanders, look at early designs for the new Centre, and provide feedback on plans for the Caerlee Mill site.
This feedback will help inform more detailed designs, which will then be shared with the community at another public meeting in early 2025.
7 November - Our community survey has now closed, with 265 responses received, with many respondents taking the time to add helpful comments and extra detail. We thank all those who responded with their comments.
We are now analysing all the results, with representatives from Innerleithen's Community Council, Community Trust and the Hub CIC initially. The next public engagement event is expected to take place in early December 2024. Further details on the event will be shared with community and partners in coming weeks.
7 October - As a follow up to the 23 September public meeting and to help SOSE and partners make the key decisions needed for the project to move forward, members of the community were asked to please complete our short survey by Friday 25 October 2024.
23 September – With partners, we held a public meeting on Monday 23 September 2024 to update the Innerleithen community on the Mountain Bike Innovation Centre.
The meeting heard SOSE and partners re-enforce their commitment to this exciting project for the Scottish Borders, while giving an update on the condition of the former Caerlee Mill following the early works carried out on the site.
SOSE also set out what happens next, which includes a further public engagement event.
The news release issued on Tuesday 24 September is available here.
Images of Caerlee Mill
Images highlighting the significant issues within the Caerlee Mill building were shared at the public meeting on 23 September. Some of the images are available to view here.
FAQs
The Mountain Bike Innovation Centre will support Scottish, UK and international companies to develop innovative products and services and train and test athletes within the mountain biking and wider cycling sector.
The Mountain Bike Innovation Centre will be funded by a £19million investment from the UK Government as part of the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal, including £4million to be allocated towards the Tweed Valley Bike Park and Trail Lab.
This funding is available, subject to the Full Business Case being completed and approved.
The Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal was signed in March 2021.
The £350million investment in the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal, from the UK and Scottish Governments, is made up of £150million for Scotland (£85million from the Scottish Government and £65million from the UK Government) and up to £200million for England from the UK Government. This will be supported by over £100million of funding from local partners.
The Mountain Bike Innovation Centre is expected to secure the Borderlands funding in 2025, subject to the Full Business Case being completed and approved.
Any later than this will risk the funding. Once the funding is secured, the project must spend the funds by the end of March 2031.
There will be a series of benefits for the Scottish Borders.
These include a predicted £138million contribution into the local economy and creation of over 400 jobs in the region over a ten year period.
Thorough investigations carried out at the site earlier this year had now discovered significant structural issues with the Caerlee Mill building.
While the site has been fully decontaminated and made safe, these issues were much more substantial than the initial surveys indicated, with the technical advice being that the majority of the historic structure needs to be replaced.
That is why our proposal is to seek approval to demolish the main building on the Caerlee Mill site.
However, we are working with members of the local community to preserve some heritage aspects of the site.
It is estimated a new build Innovation Centre, if built on the same site, will cost around £15million - half the approximate £30million to renovate the current mill building.
The revised proposals have been agreed following public meetings on 23 September and 5 December and a community survey, with demolition of the mill and construction of a new Centre in its place being the most popular of the available options.
It was only once the site was purchased, and thorough and intrusive building investigations were carried out, that SOSE was able to find out the full extent of the structural issues.
SOSE has so far spent £2.3million to:
• Purchase the site
• Intrusive early construction works which discovered the structural issues with the building, decontaminated the site and made it safe. Most of these works were required regardless of how the site is taken forward.
• Legal costs
• Achieving planning permission, listed building consent and building warrant
• Ongoing costs such as insurance to keep the site safe
Borderlands funding will only be available subject to the Full Business Case being completed and approved, so has not yet been used.
SOSE have employed a specialist to temporarily prop the building to ensure it is safe . The building is subject to weekly site safety inspections and engineer inspections every two months.
The early works carried out by main contractor Morrison Construction between December 2023 to May 2024 managed to successfully decontaminate the site and made it safe.
Most of these works were required, regardless of how the site is taken forward.
Actions included:
- Large amounts of asbestos found and fully removed
- The main building being fully secured
- Limited demolitions and wider site clearance of materials and waste left over
- Over 100 test pits dug and monitored to identify the structure of foundations, soil conditions and for wider contaminants
- Every piece of timber within the building investigated
- Rain water pipes reinstated and roof repaired to prevent ongoing deterioration
Plans for the Bike Park are being developed by a commercial partner so we cannot comment on their behalf at this stage.
However, SOSE has earmarked £4million of grant funding towards the private sector Bike Park operator.
We have looked at all options for the Caerlee Mill site, with the demolition of the main mill building and build of a new Centre the most effective way forward. This will allow the project to be delivered as planned by 2027.
Contact us
- If you have any questions on the Mountain Bike Innovation Centre or the Caerlee Mill site which are not answered on this page, please email mtb@sose.scot.
- For any enquiries regarding cycling industry support please also email mtb@sose.scot
- For research or innovation services in the sector please email our partners at Edinburgh Napier University - mtb@napier.ac.uk
- Should any neighbours have a concern with the Caerlee Mill site, they can phone our Ettrick Riverside office on 01750 505 000 during office hours, or if an emergency and out of office hours, phone 01480 484 352.