Every child in England to be offered cycle training
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Essential bike safety and skills training will be offered to every
child in England Expected spend on cycling and walking from 2016 to
2021 has doubled to £2.4 billion An extra £22 million for the
Access Fund, Big Bike Revival and Walk to School Outreach will fund
projects next year to kickstart behaviour change The Government has
today, Friday 7th February, announced all children in England
will be taught the skills for a...Request free trial
The Government has today, Friday 7th February, announced all children in England will be taught the skills for a lifetime of cycling, as its Bikeability training programme is significantly expanded. The Cycling Minister, Chris Heaton-Harris, will join world and European champion track cyclist Andy Tennant in a Bikeability session at Newnham Primary School in Daventry. The commitment will see an additional 400,000 training places offered on the scheme each year, providing children with the core skills to cycle safely and confidently on the road. More than 80% of children aged between eight and 10-years-old own a bike - and since its launch in 2006, more than 3 million children have already taken part in the Bikeability scheme.
The announcement comes as the Government has revealed that expected spend between 2016 and 2021 on active travel has doubled to £2.4 billion. The Government has also today announced that it will invest £22 million in a range of national schemes over the next year. £20 million will go to extend the Access Fund which helps local authorities support more people to cycle and walk; £1 million will go towards the Big Bike Revival – a grass roots project encouraging more than 40,000 people to take up cycling who wouldn’t normally consider it; and £1 million will be invested in the Walk to School outreach programmes offered by the Government’s partners Cycling UK and Living Streets.
The Access Fund investment will enable more employers to provide cycle training at work, as well as advice to make it easier for people to make the switch towards more sustainable forms of transport. For example - Blackpool and Sheffield County Councils will receive £2.5 million each to fund their ‘Walk To’ programmes for another year, while Devon County Council will benefit from a £500,000 grant to support their “Walking and Cycling to Prosperity initiative”. Notes to editorsEditor’s notes Joe Irvin OBE, Chief Executive, Living Streets: “We all need to walk more and drive less, to help tackle the crises of public health, traffic congestion, air pollution and climate change. Starting healthy habits at an early age is crucial to achieving this. “In schools where successful initiatives like WOW are in place, we are seeing more families choose active and sustainable ways to travel. We need to be making it possible for families to swap to healthier forms of travel and this funding will go a long way to doing that in these local authority areas.” Bikeability training will be offered to all children in England except those living in London, where cycling policy is devolved. The expansion of Bikeability comes as the Government also publishes its report to Parliament on cycling and walking showing that expected spend between 2016 and 2021 has doubled to £2.4 billion, which is a significant increase from the original Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy in 2017. The Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy set out key aims and targets to get more people cycling and walking:
Other successes, set out in the Report to Parliament, over the past three years include:
The local authorities that have received funding are;
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