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At an extraordinary general meeting staged earlier today British Cycling’s National Council voted through proposals to amend its governance structures in order to comply with the new Code for Sports Governance.
Earlier in the week British Cycling president Bob Howden warned what would happen if the amendments were voted down:
“Our 136,000 membership should be in no doubt that what is at risk is not only the funding for the Great Britain Cycling Team but our ability to support the grassroots of every part of our sport in every part of the country. Without this funding the sport of cycling could be lost to an entire generation. This is no bluff. Table Tennis England chose to reject the reforms and had their Sport England funding suspended. We can’t allow this to happen.
“We can choose to be a sport which has a leading role in the public life of this country, where our voice is heard at the highest level, where participation among women is surging and where our riders are the standard by which sporting success is judged, or we can choose to turn the clock back 30 or more years to when we were on the margins, when our membership was much less diverse and when our best talent struggled to compete.
The proposals were amended to include measures to create a board place nominated by British Cycling’s ten English regions.
British Cycling CEO Julie Harrington said: “Securing funding for elite and grassroots participation through these changes will enable us to inspire more people on to two wheels across communities the length of the country. Without secured funding we will not be able to share our love of the sport and enable others to try it. Our sport is growing and growing up. Today’s vote is the start of an exciting new chapter for British Cycling and our sport.”
