Children’s Bikeability training extended
A further 1,400 children in the Wokingham Borough will now be able to benefit from Bikeability cycle training thanks to a grant from the Department for Transport (DfT).
The £61,000 DfT grant to Wokingham Borough Council means this successful and popular scheme can continue in the borough for another year, until April 2021.
During the past seven years, more than 10,000 children in the borough have taken part in Bikeability training. This equates to 78 per cent of Year 6 children locally.
“Parents who’ve experienced Bikeability tell us they value it because of the confidence and skills it gives their children,” said Sarah Hollamby, the council’s director of locality and customer services. “And the children say they really enjoy it. So, to be able to train even more youngsters in this way is fantastic.
“But Bikeability also has other benefits. It helps reduce child obesity and research shows children who cycle regularly are also more likely to become active adults. There’s also the positive environmental impact by reducing CO2 emissions and air pollution.”
My Journey Wokingham runs Bikeability on behalf of the council. It also runs courses during Easter and summer for children who have missed out on training at school, and those privately or home-educated.
Bikeability training is offered at three levels, based on a child’s age and experience. It starts with basic bike handling in a controlled traffic-free environment and builds up to on-the-road training. The aim is to create confident and skilled young cyclists in a variety of traffic conditions on different types of roads.
For more information, please see: https://www.myjourneywokingham.com/news/