Merseyside receives £346,000 for cycle training

MERSEYSIDE has received the biggest Cycle Training Grant in England to help more than 8,000 school pupils learn to cycle safely on the roads.

A grant of £346,000 has been announced by Transport Minister Rosie Winterton to continue the excellent work already being carried out by the TravelWise course known as Merseybike.

The course teaches safe riding skills, and this new funding will allow training to be offered to every pupil in Years Five or Six at primary schools on Merseyside, with an extra 8,650 pupils benefiting in total.

The training follows the National Standard for Cycle Training known as "Bikeability" and some 2,500 primary and 1,650 secondary school pupils on Merseyside have already been through the course in 2007 /08. The scheme was launched 2 years ago and has since trained almost 20,000 people to cycle more safely.

This Merseybike scheme is funded by the partners behind the Local Transport Plan (LTP) - Merseytravel and the five Local Authorities of Merseyside. TravelWise is the LTP's campaign to encourage more people to make sustainable transport choices.

Neil Scales, Chief Executive and Director General of Merseytravel and Chair of the Local Transport Plan Partnership, said the announcement of the £346,000 grant was great news.

"This increased funding is an endorsement of the work we have already carried out in delivering what is the biggest and best cycling training course in the country," he said.

"With the extra money we will be able to teach even more young people to cycle in safety. Increasing cycling participation is one of the key elements of our Local Transport Plan, and encouraging more pupils to cycle will also help them to adopt a healthier lifestyle, tackle problems such as congestion at the school gate and improve the environment."

The Merseybike courses are run on behalf of TravelWise by Cycling Solutions, a Community Interest Company based on Merseyside which feeds its profits back into related projects.

In addition, cycle training is available for older children, families and adults in the Liverpool area for free. For more information please contact www.letstravelwise.org

The Department for Transport has announced an overall package of Cycle Training Grants worth £3 million that will provide training for 80,000 ten and 11 year olds throughout England. The Government has already announced a record £140 million investment in cycling which will give up to 500,000 children cycle training by 2012.

Making the announcement, Transport Minister Rosie Winterton said:

"Encouraging cycling also encourages healthier lifestyles. Considering obesity now affects around one quarter of adults and 1 in 10 children, encouraging people to take exercise has never been more important.

"At the same time congestion is getting worse. If parents can be satisfied their children can cycle safely they are more likely to let them use their bikes. And getting children cycling could even encourage their parents to dust off their own bikes."

Philip Darnton, Chairman of Cycling England, said in support of the DfT announcement:

"This is wonderful news for cycling. We are making real progress with the delivery of Bikeability training. We are now well on course to exceed the 100,000 additional training places promised to the then Secretary of State when Cycling England was set up in 2005 and the extra 500,000 training places the Department wants by 2012."