Essex County Council has secured a grant of £800,000 to provide cycle training to primary school children. Funding will be used over the next two years. It comes from Bikeability Trust UK, which administers the national Bikeability programme. This is on behalf of Active Travel England.

Bikeability is the government’s national cycle training programme. It gives young people practical skills and confidence to safely cycle on roads.  Qualified, expert instructors deliver training all year round.

Almost 4,000 sessions were delivered to primary school children in 2023. This summer, over 200 young people took part in 42 different Bikeability courses in Essex

Councillor Tom Cunningham, Cabinet Member for Highways, Infrastructure and Sustainable Transport, said: “A generation of young people in Essex will now have the confidence to cycle and be able to make safer, greener and healthier travel choices thanks to this new funding.

“Our ambition is to make sure that no child leaves primary school in Essex without the knowledge, confidence and opportunity to ride a bike. The Bikeability training programme will ensure they have better road skills and more choice when travelling around their communities.”