Inclusive Cycling gets just over half a million Big Lottery Fund boost

Zara enjoying a recent Freedom Disability Cycling Day run by CTC Cycle Champions project in Sheffield
CTC is delighted to have been awarded £590,000 from Big Lottery Fund to enable over 1000 more people with disabilities to enjoy cycling.

The charity will now set up a network of Inclusive Cycling Champions to build on the work that CTC already does to enable people with disabilities to enjoy cycling. The project will run for 2 years.

Lorraine Stone Senior Fundraising Officer for the charity says “CTC is going to be helping disabled cyclists get on their bikes and experience the joy of cycling, thanks to over half a million pound grant from the BIG Lottery Fund  which will go a long way to making sure that disabled people across the country can enjoy cycling.”

CTC, as part of the Travel Actively consortium which has received a total of £3.6m Lottery funding today to deliver 19 projects across the UK, will be building on the excellent work at existing projects like the ‘Everybody’s Active’ sessions in Reading and starting new ventures.  In Sheffield there will be continued support for disability cycling with regular sessions within the city parks which already gives access to riding on adapted and bespoke bikes.

The funding will see, in partnership with Cycling Projects, an Inclusive Cycling Champion officer based in the north east, north west, south east and south west. They will work at existing centres helping them to become sustainable, setting up new inclusive cycling projects where they are needed and establishing an awards system for leisure centres. The quality mark will be much like a hotel star system to standardise the projects that are on offer so that everyone will know what to expect when cycling at a particular centre.

 

Lorraine Stone Fundraising Manager at CTC  "Each region has a fleet of adapted bikes available through our partners at Cycling Projects and the new CTC officers will soon be on hand to give disabled people the opportunity to learn a new skill, get active and have fun."

 

We will be publicising new and existing inclusive cycling opportunities as they come on stream over the coming months and will be getting the information out to disability advocacy and social groups, through a GP referral scheme and to carers.