In partnership with Sefton Borough Council a programme of social rides, cycle training and cycle maintenance are targeting groups with physical health problems and learning difficulties.
The Cycle Champions Development Officer - Juliet Jardine, is liaising with a number of community groups in the area. Activities provided to these groups include:
· Assisting in the delivery and expansion of current projects to 4 secondary schools and their feeder schools.
· Developing competitive cycling as part of the school curriculum within the 4 secondary schools.
· Developing new initiatives to encourage cycling, particularly aiming to develop a Wheels for All centre in the south of the Borough. Based at Litherland Sports Park, it utilises the local cycle network to develop a range of rides suitable for all abilities and adapted cycles.
· Development of a community cycle club in partnership with the local Primary Care Trust.
· Enhancing the promotion of existing projects and ensure new projects are promoted as widely as possible.
· Ensuring that a greater degree of monitoring of all projects takes place in order that the benefit of each of the initiatives can be proven.
The park facility has a substantial impact on the community of South Sefton providing access to these new facilities and youth and community engagement. It enables training, racing, coaching and disabled use in a range of cycling disciplines and be used as a base for the Wheels for All Centre (adapted cycles for people with special needs and disabilities. This is the second Wheels for All Centre in the Borough and the facility also houses the eleventh 'Freewheeling' centre (free bike loan centres situated throughout the Borough).
The project supports the objectives of the Merseyside Cycling Strategy, the British Cycling One Stop Plan and Facility Strategy and is working towards the aims set out in the Sport England ‘Plan for Sport’.
Partners and supporters of the project
Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council
Sefton Primary Care Trust
To find out more about the Big Lottery funded Cycle Champions initiative, please click here.
