Michele Kelsey
The North East will receive £1,044,162 to help more children learn to cycle with Bikeability.
The funding is part of a record £20 million investment for the Bikeability Trust from the Department of Transport. It will be used to deliver cycle training for children and families.
Bikeability has trained more than 3.6 million children since 2007. This funding has the potential to deliver half a million training places for children and their families across the UK, supporting even more people to introduce active travel into their everyday lives.
The funding will ensure even more people are equipped with the skills, confidence and knowledge to cycle on our roads.
The Bikeability Trust is continuing to offer bursaries for those wanting to join the industry as an instructor. This will help the Trust achieve its ambition of offering cycle training to every child.
Speaking at the Bikeability conference, active travel minister Trudy Harrison said:
“Cycling helps both our planet and our wellbeing, and learning to cycle is also an important life skill.
“Our ambition is for every child to be able to access Bikeability training, and I’m delighted we’ve been able to invest a record £20 million to help make this a reality.”
Emily Cherry, CEO at the Bikeability Trust, said:
“We have already trained more than 3.6 million children how to cycle confidently and safely. This record investment will help us to achieve our ambition of offering every child cycle training.
“Bikeability teaches children an essential life skill that benefits their health and helps the make more sustainable travel choices. Getting children cycling when they’re young embeds active habits for life, gives them the independence to travel to school and, most importantly, helps them discover how fun cycling is!”
The funding will enable more parents and pupils in the North East to leave the car at home and choose cycling for short, every day journeys.
The investment supports the Government’s plans to decarbonise our transport network and Build Back Greener from Covid.
The ambition is for half of all journeys in towns and cities to be walked or cycled by 2030 and the Department for Transport is allocating an unprecedented £2 billion over five years to deliver that ambition.
This all comes as the Department for Transport recently launched Active Travel England, the Executive Agency tasked with driving up the quality of cycling and walking routes, led by former Olympic cyclist Chris Boardman.
