Cycling pupils in Tower Hamlets scoop top London Award
Issued on: Friday 5 March, 2010
A project to encourage more children to cycle to school has picked up a top accolade at the London Transport Awards.
Sustrans' Bike It project in Tower Hamlets led by sustainable transport charity Sustrans, Tower Hamlets Council and NHS Tower Hamlets, won the Cycling Improvements category at the awards ceremony in west London last night [Thursday 4 March, 2010].
The project - part of the Tower Hamlets Healthy Borough Programme - has worked directly with 21 schools in Tower Hamlets, running events, classroom sessions, and cycle training to encourage pupils onto their bikes for the school journey.
Following the project's launch in 2008, the number of children regularly cycling to school in Tower Hamlets has increased by almost five-fold, from just 3 per cent to almost 14 per cent.
Carl Pittam, Director of Sustrans in London, said: 'The award is well-deserved recognition of the great things this joint project has achieved in Tower Hamlets. We are helping to give children a greater level of independence, to start their day in an active way and hopefully set them up with a healthy habit that they will maintain for life.
'This is also the first time our work with school children has been funded by an NHS Trust and shows what can be achieved when the health and transport sectors actively work together. Currently in London one in six adults and one in five ten to eleven year olds are obese, so projects like ours are an important part of helping to tackle the problem.'
'Bike It' has been supported from the start by Transport for London, whose funding allows trials of the project across a number of London boroughs. This has led to local partnerships between Sustrans, the London boroughs and NHS Trusts helping to extend the benefits of the project to many more school children across London.
Alwen Williams, Chief Executive NHS Tower Hamlets, said:
'This is a great achievement. Our research shows that children in Tower Hamlets participate in less sport or other physical activity of at least 30 minutes duration daily than the average for England. We also know that there are low levels of cycling to school in the borough.
'The Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives in Tower Hamlets strategy identified the need to increase participation in physical activity by children and young people and Bike It was identified and funded as one of several projects to help deliver this objective.'
Councillor Abdal Ullah, Lead Member for Cleaner, Safer, Greener at Tower Hamlets Council, said: 'It's fantastic that our efforts to boost physical activity and help the environment have been recognised at a national level. This comes less than two years before we host the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and this bodes well for the future.'
This award-winning work with schools is just one of Sustrans' projects in Tower Hamlets. The charity is also working with the borough on a new network of walking and cycling routes around Regents Canal to Mile End Park, as well as leading 'Ocean Estate Get Out, Get Active' which will include providing households with personalised travel information about local walking and cycling routes and public transport services.
Further information about Sustrans, including other news releases and detailed online route mapping, is available through our website: www.sustrans.org.uk
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NOTES
Sustrans is the UK's leading sustainable transport charity. Its vision is a world in which people choose to travel in ways that benefit their health and the environment. It is achieving this through innovative but practical solutions to the UK's transport challenges.
Bike It is a nationwide scheme, managed by Sustrans, aiming to increase the number of young people cycling to school and on other journeys
Over the 2007/08 academic year there was a doubling of cycling levels in schools taking part in the Bike It programme
There are currently 57 Bike It Officers in post across England and Wales working in depth with 10 to 12 schools each
The project receives funding from Cycling England with the support of the Department for Transport, Bike Hub - the cycle industry levy, the Big Lottery Fund's Well-being Programme, the National Assembly for Wales, Transport for London and support from partner local authorities and NHS Primary Care Trusts
Cycling England is the expert body set up by Government to promote cycling nationally. Further information about Cycling England can be found at www.cyclingengland.co.uk
This year Sustrans ismarking the fifteenth anniversary of the National Cycle Network.On9 September 1995, an award from theMillennium Commissionenabled Sustrans to embark on thefirst 2,500 miles ofa 6,500 mile National Cycle Network. TheNetwork now extends to just over 12,000 miles and carries one million walking and cycling journeys every day.
Sustrans is calling on UK governments to invest in doubling the number of journeys under five miles made by foot, bike and public transport to four out of five by 2020. For more information and to download a copy of the call to action visit http://www.sustrans.org.uk/about-sustrans/call-to-action-for-2020