WESTCOUNTRY CYCLE TRAINING - SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Thank you for visiting us. Westcountry Cycle Training is now dormant and in process of being dissolved.

During the seven years of our existence we have delivered Bikeability courses to over 10,000 young people in North Devon.

Below you'll find the figures of our annual delivery of Level 1 and 2 Bikeability (10 hour course to children aged 9-11), covering basic on-road cycling skills:

2011: 1104 children (63%)

2012: 1480 children (85%)

2013: 1405 children (80%)

2014: 1383 children (79%)

2015: 1525 children (87%)

2016: 1494 children (85%)

2017: 1169 children (69%)

The percentages in the table above indicate to what extend we were able to deliver to eligible children in our core area of North Devon and parts of West Devon (on average 1750 children per year). On a national level, the average percentage of participation in Bikeability is estimated not to exceed 50% [1].

Our high coverage is a direct result of the dedication and persistence by a small number of people in promoting this voluntarily course to school staff and parents. We could do so because our local authority, Devon County Council, allocated nearly all available funding to us. All Bikeability courses where provided to schools and children at no cost, funded by Department for Transport in partnership with Devon County Council

We also piloted delivery of Bikeability Level 3 (4 to 6 hour course for children aged 11-14), enabling young people to truly cycle to school on a daily basis:

2012: 114 children (10%)

2013: 188 children (13%)

2014: 247 children (18%)

2015: 239 children (17%)

2016: 256 children (17%)

2017: 132 children (9%)

The percentages in the table above indicate to what extend we were able to deliver to eligible children in the North Devon learning community. In this case, only children who already completed Level 1 and 2 during the previous year were eligible. The Department for Transport wrote us recently that we had "the most successful track record in delivering Bikeability Level 3 training." [2]

On top of the figures above, we also brought Bikeability to some communities in Cornwall and Somerset.

In our core area of North Devon, we also delivered on other pilot projects, such as Bikeability Balance and Level 1 for very young children.

Privately funded, we also helped out hundreds of parents struggling to get their child riding unaided.

Last but not least, we taught more than hundred brave adults to ride bikes; for many a life changing event!

We take pride in having achieved in so many ways. It saddens us to have to decide to end our organisation.

Some of us will endeavour to continue the good work in North Devon via Plymouth School Sport Partnership.

Yours sincerely,

Dawn Connor, Eric van der Horst and Ian Jewell, Directors Westcountry Cycle Training.

More information on Bikeability can be found on the Department for Transport Bikeability website.

[1] Cycle training for children, which schools offer it and who takes part? A. Goodman, E. van Sluijs and D. Ogilvie, December 2015

[2] Email to us from Jolyon Whaymand of Steer Davies Gleave consultancy firm on behalf of DfT, 13 March 2017.