Award

If proof were needed that the bicycle industry is thriving during the recession, it’s been confirmed by the news that Bath-based Cyclescheme has been named the fastest-growing private company in Britain in this year’s Fast Track 100 league table, published in The Sunday Times.

The prestigious accolade reflects the company’s phenomenal growth, which has seen sales rocket by 348% a year from an annualised £253,000 in 2006 to £22.7m in 2009.

A police initiative to teach deaf children to ride bicycles is among five projects that will be recognised this evening in the annual London Cycling Awards.

Other winners of the awards, announced at the annual general meeting of London Cycling Campaign (CLC) and sponsored by Evans Cycles, include an off-road cycle route linking Camden with St Pancras, a training scheme in Lambeth that brings HGV drivers and cyclists together, an initiative to promote cycling on three housing estates in Hackney, and a re-thinking of a hazardous junction in Islington.

They said it'd never work when it was launched, but 33 years after the company was founded Brompton is the biggest bike manufacturer in the UK, knocking out 22,000 bikes a year of which 70% are exported around the world. And to mark that achievement Andrew Ritchie, founder inventor of the Brompton, has been awarded the Prince Philip Designers Prize, awarded annually to recognize a lifetime contribution to design. His Royal Highness made the award at a reception held last night at Buckingham Palace to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Prize.