Photo credit: Peacehaven Community School

A fantastic community initiative has been boosted by Peacehaven Community School, ESCC – Road Safety Team and Sustrans – the charity that makes it easier for people to walk and cycle.

Peacehaven Community School have donated 25 mountain bikes to the Peacehaven Cycle Hub for use at the Peacehaven Cycle Hub, a facility set up to encourage cycling in and around Peacehaven.

Josh Burns, a PE teacher at PCS realised that the school bike fleet presented a fantastic opportunity for children at the school to use and was keen to get as many pupils out on the bikes as possible. So, working with local Sustrans Officer Jamie Lloyd, the school agreed to donate the bikes for use by the community. Pupils from the school will be given membership cards to the Hub so that they can access the bikes at weekends and in the school holidays.  The bike fleet will be managed and maintained by Sustrans, and will be available to other bicycle user groups in the area.

The Hub is located in the Big Park, Peacehaven, just a few minutes walk from the school and is easily accessible by pupils from the school and the wider community. The Hub is funded by the Department for Transport Access Fund. This funding was secured by ESCC and is part of the wider East Sussex Active Access for Growth Programme being delivered to encourage active travel in the wider community.  It is available for any community group to use and serves to promote sustainable transport and healthy lifestyles.

East Sussex Cycle Training, one of the key partners in the hub, have provided Bikeability training for children at the school, as part of the partnership. 87 pupils received training in cycle skills to help boost confidence when cycling. One of the pupils from the school wrote a speech in which he praised the quality of the Bikeability lessons; “The teachers and instructors were amazing ensuring our safety. It was such a fun and interesting experience, we all enjoyed it so much. It was also very interesting learning about road safety, because it is important to know what to do on the road”

Jamie Lloyd said “This is a great opportunity to get these excellent mountain bikes into regular use by the local community. Peacehaven is an excellent place for cycling, with links to The Egrets Way and South Downs Way and I am delighted that local children can now access a good quality bike to explore the local area” he went on to say “these bikes are not only for local children, we will be offering community bike rides for all members of the local community from the middle of April and any member of the local community would be welcome to join us and these bikes will be available for them as well”

Josh Burns, the PE teacher from Peacehaven Community School who was instrumental in the delivery of the bike project said “It has been a pleasure liaising with Jamie from Sustrans. I am excited to see the impact these bikes will have for our students and their families in the local community.” Josh continued “As a school we value the opportunity we can provide for our students to live active and healthy lives. We also value the impact these opportunities create for our local community and always look to grow and develop our network and contributions within it. This is a big part of our ethos and values as a Community School.”

At the official handover of the bicycles, students from the school were joined by the Head teacher, Darren Warner-Swann and the Executive Head teacher – Liza Leung as well as representatives from Peacehaven Town Council, Sustrans Officers, Bikeability Instructors and representatives from Cycle Seahaven.

Guy Reynolds, Chairman of Cycle Seahaven, said this was a great initiative that could serve as a catalyst towards other community-based projects. This will give the cycle Hub Stakeholders an opportunity to explore getting the local youth involved in projects such as Dr Bike (a free bike safety checked service) or group rides into the South Downs National Park.

To Find Out More about activities happening at The Peacehaven Cycle Hub contact Jamie Lloyd: jamie.lloyd@sustrans.org.uk

Twitter: @PeacehavenHub

Web: http://bigparksproject.org.uk/peacehaven-cycle-hub/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ActiveTravelES/

Cycle Seahaven: https://cycleseahaven.org.uk/

Peacehaven Community School: http://www.phcs.org.uk/

ENDS