Up and running: New track boosts athletics in West Dunbartonshire

Friday 30th May 2025

Young members of West Dunbartonshire Athletics Club are on the right track after testing out the new athletics facility in Dumbarton.

The athletes attended the official opening of the sports hub at Posties Park alongside officials from West Dunbartonshire Council and West Dunbartonshire Leisure Trust, elected members and representatives from scottishathletics.

The new sports hub features a six-lane all-weather running track, facilities for field events, changing accommodation for individual athletes as well as teams and Officials.

It is hoped that over time the Posties Park facility will be used by West Dunbartonshire AC, Dumbarton AAC and Helensburgh AC.

An easy-to-navigate online booking system is in operation with more than 150 bookings made since the facility first officially opened to the public on Thursday 24 April.

Councillor David McBride who is the West Dunbartonshire Leisure Trust Partner Director and Convener of Infrastructure, Regeneration and Economic Development, said: ‘It was an honour to be invited along to the Posties Park Athletics Hub and mark the official opening of this wonderful facility.

‘For the last few weeks, the hub and running track has been in operation and has already been incredibly well used.

‘It was a pleasure to have some of the young people from West Dunbartonshire Athletics Club attending for the official opening. I hope they continue to have fun and success on the track.

‘I look forward to hearing about their future successes and would love to see one of them or their clubmates at the Olympics or Commonwealth Games in future, owing at least a part of their success to having this facility on their doorstep.’

Councillor Clare Steel, Chair of the West Dunbartonshire Leisure Trust Board, added: ‘This is a great facility and it is fantastic to see it so well used in the first few weeks of operation.

‘Thanks to the hard work of Council officers and West Dunbartonshire Leisure Trust staff in getting the sports hub up and running.’

scottishathletics National Club Manager, Lindsay McMahon, has been involved in the project and attended the official opening with our Head of Communications, Peter Jardine.

Lindsay said: ‘This athletics facility is the first in Scotland to use the ClubSpark entry system (smart gate access), which makes it different to other facilities (see more online). This is a progressive approach and we may see it happen at other facilities in Scotland over the coming years.

‘At the time when West Dunbartonshire were looking at ClubSpark the only other athletics facility that used this system was in North Tyneside.’