In 2021, North Wales Slalom was awarded £9036.40 from the Clocaenog Forest Wind Farm Fund to set up a permanent Slalom Course and training facilities at Llangollen on the Mile End Mill site. The money from the Clocaenog fund went towards purchasing equipment for the setup, including kayaks, paddles and shafts, buoyancy aids and cags.

North Wales Slalom now has five training sites in Llanberis, Capel Curig, Mold, Tryweryn and Llangollen. The Llangollen site is unique, as it is a moving water training and coaching site. These are the best training conditions to prepare for race conditions on moving water.

The setup has been a great success, with North Wales Slalom club membership increasing by 10%. There are also now 2 more volunteer coaches operating at the Llangollen site, working to develop the slalom programme. The club has been attracting visitors too, people have used the training site from Stafford and Stone, Ironbridge and Mold Canoe Club.

There are now a number of young people training at the Llangollen site twice a week, and they are an active part of the North Wales Slalom programme. The coaches hope that some of these young paddlers will qualify for the Welsh slalom programme. In the future, we could see some youngsters from Llangollen qualify for team GB!

Jonathan Davies from Canoe Wales said:

"North Wales slalom over the next twelve months is likely to see a 25% increase in the numbers of young paddlers participating on the North Wales regional slalom program.This is due to having for the first time a structured and supportive pathway at grassroots level in the llangollen area.

This would not have happened without the funding that the club received from the Clocaenog Forest wind farm.The program looks forward to seeing future athletes from the Llangollen area competing on the Welsh team program and representing Wales at international events across Europe.