Travel Actively pushes forward to get 'Barrow on Bikes'
March 1, 2024
Barrow on Bikes is the name of our Barrow Market bike repair initiative, which has proven incredibly successful since our opening day on December 22nd 2023.
During the first year of the pilot project, funded by the Department for Transport, Travel Actively Barrow have trained up 18 bike maintenance volunteers, with 10 of them regularly attending Barrow Indoor Market on Fridays between 10am and 12 midday. All training has been provided by Stage 1 Cycles on behalf of Cycling UK, with our participants either completing a one day course, or a two day advanced course, with opportunities to attend further training with the industry standard Cytech organisation. Since that first week, the volunteers have carried out basic repairs, and some more extensive ones, with over 30 people from our target audiences benefitting so far. We have also worked closely with TopMark to refer repairs beyond our remit, and to source parts.
The final workshop takes place on Friday 22nd March 2024. Travel Actively Barrow will then look to take our repair workshop to a new location and also attend events and support communities in Barrow, offering free repairs and advice.
In addition, Cycling UK’s popular Dr Bike sessions will be invited to come to Barrow, with our volunteers working alongside advanced mechanics from Stage 1 Cycles to fix as many bikes as they can. The first of these is to take place on Thursday March 14th, at Barrow Leisure Centre, as part of the Social Prescribing Day.
Get involved!
If you would like to volunteer, and receive free bike maintenance training, please contact TravelActively@cumberland.gov.uk.
To enquire about your bike, and how to get it repaired, contact us via email.
To keep up to date with all of our initiatives, follow us on Facebook: ‘Travel Actively Barrow’.
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