A “fantastic” new £110,000 bike and skate pump track will be built in North Farnham after financing was agreed by Waverley Borough Council.

The Sandy Hill track will be paid for by community infrastructure (CIL) developer funding and comes at the end of a long-running campaign to replace the town’s BMX track that had fallen into disrepair.

Papers presented to the WBC Executive Committee last night (Tuesday, August 5) state the borough lacks a “much needed” pump track or anything similar.

Sandy Hill is one of the borough’s most deprived areas with the council hoping the new facility will also attract people to the area.

Leader of the council, Councillor Paul Follows, hailed the “fundamentally positive” scheme and called backing the park “a no brainer” as it has the support of residents and the area really needs it.

Councillor Kika Mirylees, portfolio holder for community services and leisure said: “This has been in our sights for some time. I am just really pleased.

She added: “We have had people at Sandy Hill who have been very much involved in this which has been fantastic.”

“I’m just really thrilled we have got to this place and I think that it won’t just be, because it will be so popular, for the people who live up there I know people will be going on their bicycles and arriving there and having a go, who come from other parts of Farnham.”

Cllr Miryless added: “This is something that we can all be proud of and I’m really thrilled that we’ve got to this point with it.

“Before we had a BMX track but that was not possible to continue with as it became overgrown and became a place for plants that we need to look after due to special scientific interest but we’ve got this area and it will be fantastic.”

The consultation into the park pulled in more than 1,100 respondents with 90 per cent in favour of the project, councillors at the Godalming meeting heard.

The area has a tradition of hosting cycling competitions as far back as the 1970s when Sandy Hill’s former BMX track hosted national level finals with big crowds of spectators.

Generations who have grown up in Farnham would have been familiar with the former BMX track or used it and now have children or grandchildren who would like something similar, the papers added.

Planning permission for the pump track must be secured by April 1 next year for the CIL funding to remain available.

Explaining to the committee why the new course is called a pump track, council chief executive Pedro Wrobel said: “I feel slightly ashamed that I appear to be the only representative of the BMXing/ skater community here.

“I believe it’s called a pump track because of the way in which one has to pump in order to get up and down the verticals. So it is the way that one leans forward on a bicycle and pumps their legs.”