Bike It in Southend
Graham Pearl - Bike It officer
See Graham's Bike It feature (pdf) in Southend's Newsline magazine.
Contact Graham: Bike It officer - Thames Gateway Authorities, Floor 11,
Civic Centre, Victoria Avenue, Southend on Sea,
Essex SS2 6ZQ
Tel: 01702 534851, mobile: 07979 853297 or email: graham.pearl@sustrans.org.uk
Graham joined Sustrans in March 2008
"Cycling and helping others to cycle is a passion of mine, particularly for the health and social benefits. I feel it's important to give everyone, particularly children, the opportunity to enjoy not only those benefits but also the freedom, responsibilities and appreciation for the environment cycling brings."
Before joining the Bike It team, Graham was a Health and Safety Officer. He started cycling about 8 years ago and was soon mountain biking, road racing, qualifying as a cycling instructor and taking groups to charity rides around the country.
Graham's Schools for 2011/12:
- Bournes Green Junior School
- Earls Hall Junior School
- Fairways Primary School
- Futures College
- Heycroft Primary School
- Leigh North Street Junior School
- Porters Grange Primary School and Nursery
- Priory School
- Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School and Nursery
- Southend High School for Boys
- St Mary's, Prittlewell, CofE Primary School
- Temple Sutton Primary School
- Thorpe Greenways Junior School
What's Graham up to?
I am really lucky in Southend to have a great local authority team to work with in Cycle Southend. They deliver Bikeability in schools and have also worked with me to run Bike It events. Having them working with me means that Bike It is able to reach further into the school community and engage with the whole family. It has proved a very successful combination to get whole families cycling more often. We have also been able to experiment with some new activities.
Not everything we tried, worked exactly as we wanted but one of the strengths of our partnership is that we are able to monitor and review results and modify our activities until we see the outcomes we want.
I have signed up a further 6 Bike It schools for 2011/12 and have started work with them. The Big Pedal is just around the corner and following successes last year most of Bike It schools have already signed up. I will continue to deliver the tried and trusted Bike It activities that prove so effective in getting children cycling to school. Also, together with Cycle Southend we will be rolling out a few of the new activities we piloted last year in one or two schools.
Bike It is now well established amongst the school community and has become an integral element in Southend Borough Council’s ongoing project to increase the number of cyclists. Whilst they continue to improve the cycle network and actively promote sustainable travel, in my view, it has never been a better time to be a Bike It Officer or a cyclist in Southend.