One of the first enquiries that Bike Club received was from an extended services cluster based around Milnthorpe in South Lakeland.

The Extended Services Cluster Manager for Milnthorpe area, Angela Franklin, decided that cycling was an ideal activity for family learning and she had the idea of offering various cycling related activities culminating in the chance to take part in the Three Counties Challenge ride in July.  I was delighted to support her application to become one of the very first Bike Clubs because of the opportunity it presents for whole families to enjoy healthy exercise and to learn new skills.  Young people between 10 and 20 years old can of course take a leadership role in planning, organising and helping to lead the activities.

The extended services concept is about offering opportunities to communities using school premises and resources outside of normal school hours for informal learning.  It is a government initiative which has been running since 2005 and has some really exciting links to Bike Club’s objectives and ambitions.  One of Bike Club’s key partners, ContinYou, are experts in the whole field of extended services.

The Milnthorpe extended services cluster consists of eight rural primary schools and Dallam High School.  The project will be a partnership between a range of organisations including the police, Cumbria County Council, Cumbria Tourism, Kent Valley Road Club and Bike Club.  I am really looking forward to working in partnership with these organisations and to seeing the success of the initiatives as the summer unwinds.

The menu of activities is to include teaching under fives to ride without stabilisers, a bike to school day, family cycle skills sessions, bike maintenance sessions and a trip to Manchester Velodrome to try out track cycling.  Training will be offered to willing volunteers to become ride leaders so that the project is sustainable in future years.

It is great to be finally seeing a Bike Club project get of the ground and I look forward to blogging about the fun we’ll be having getting ready for the Three Counties Challenge.