Recycle Your Cycle
Have you got an old bicycle that you never use taking up valuable space in your shed or garage? Then why not have a clear out, and enable a local child to make better use of it?
It's all part of a scheme run in partnership between the London Borough of Bexley and Sidcup Cycles, Station Road, Sidcup.
Bikes brought to the shop will be made roadworthy and given a new lease of life. They will then given to schools and used to boost cycling and cut car use on school runs.
Some schools give the bicycles to children whose families may be unable to buy a bike. Other schools use them to run cycle clubs or raffle them. The shop charges the schools only for parts - all labour is free.
Cabinet Member for Transport, Cllr Peter Craske said: "This scheme is an all round winner. Not only are bikes being recycled, the children benefiting from the initiative are getting more exercise, reducing congestion around their schools and receiving valuable cycle training to keep them safer."
Last year Sidcup Cycles donated 75 bikes to four Bexley schools, enabling more children to take part in the free National Standard Cycle Training courses, run by the Council. The aim of these courses is to encourage young people aged ten or over, to use their bicycles as a form of transport to and from school, and to learn how to do so more safely on the road.
Sidcup Cycles will be providing the Business Academy Bexley in Thamesmead with 20 cycles in the next couple of weeks. It hopes to be able offer a similar number to Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Primary School in Blackfen in the coming months.
For further details contact Nigel Hill of Sidcup Cycles on 020 8300 8113 or Jenny Counsell, School Travel Coordinator, London Borough of Bexley on 020 8308 7917.
