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Pupils in Cambridgeshire to get free Bikeability training from 2012/13 school year

Currently youngsters have to pay but that will change thanks to DfT cash injection

Cambridgeshire County Council will no longer need to charge pupils for Bikeability training for the next three academic years after receiving more than half a million pounds in funding from the Department for Transport (DfT).

Currently, the council charges for the training, but in the next academic year, 4,000 students will receive free training, followed by 4,500 in 2013/14 and 5,000 the year after that, reports the Peterborough Evening Telegraph.

The newspaper says that the change has been made possible through a £540,0000 grant from the DfT, together with £10,000 from the council’s own finances.

Councillor Steve Criswell, Cambridgeshire County Council cabinet member for community infrastructure, explained: “We currently charge for cycle training, but following a wider review of the road safety budget where we have made some spending saving by cutting overheads and with the support from DfT, from the start of the next academic year we will be able to scrap the charge and provide this important road safety advice to youngsters at no cost.”

Despite the Coalition Government last year scrapping Cycling England last year, the body that had launched Bikeability in 2007, Transport Minister Norman Baker has said that the initiative will continue to receive support at least for the duration of the current Parliament, and in October announced funding of £11 million for the 2011/12 academic year.

 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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Simon E | 12 years ago
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If they wait until Year 6, as they do in Shropshire, it's too little, too late. Bikeability should have a basic level for age 6-8 so that younger kids learn the essential safety and handling skills before they venture out.

A fair few of the kids living near me have not had any training or parental guidance and consequently have a really frightening lack of awareness of traffic, positioning, junctions and so on. They have to walk or cycle 3 miles to the nearest secondary school along a busy ring road, crossing multiple arterial routes into town at rush hour and appear to be poorly equipped for this experience.

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PzychotropicMac | 12 years ago
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I wonder if they still teach children to ride in the middle of the road when passing a side road.

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