Cycling may not be the new golf - but a golf course in Leeds is getting turned into an Urban Bike Park

“Cycling is the new golf” is a headline we’ve seen regularly repeated in the mainstream media for more than a decade now but here’s a new spin on it, with a golf course in Leeds set to be turned into an ‘Urban Bike Park.’

The former Middleton Park golf course, closed in 2014, will be turned into a cycling facility that will include a competition-standard mountain bike trail of almost 6.5 kilometres in length, reports Insider Media.

It will be designed by Cumbria-based Bike Track, the people behind facilities such as the Lady Cannings mountain bike trail in Sheffield, opened last year.

There will also be a pump track and jump and skills zones, as well as a clubhouse with a cycling café and bike workshop according to plans published by Leeds City Council and supported by British Cycling.

The park, located four miles south of Leeds city centre, is owned by Wade’s Charity but leased by the council on a 999-year lease.

The municipal golf course that is currently there was shut by the council in 2014 because it lost money.

The Urban Bike Park that will replace it aims to build on the legacy of that year’s Tour de France Grand Depart, and aims to have a cycling destination with “regional and national pull" is now envisaged to replace it.

Full details of the planning application can be found on the Leeds City Council website.