Preston project aims to recycle cycles aimed for landfill

The city council looks set to give Preston Pedals free use of a room at the Argyll Road Waste Depot where the group can store discarded cycles for recycling, instead of sending them to landfill.

The project, delivered by Climate Action Preston and funded by the National Lottery, aims to make cycling an everyday mode of transport in Preston "by supporting non-cyclists and empowering people from groups less likely to cycle."

It is focussed on groups in the city "for whom cycling may be less accessible and/or affordable including Muslim women, refugees and those who are not working or who are in precarious or low paid employment."

Since it was set up Preston Pedals has been looking for a base where it can store bikes for reconditioning.

The council stepped in with an offer to use a vacant storeroom at its waste centre with the intention of re-using many of the abandoned bikes that the refuse service collects every week.

The cabinet is expected to give its approval when it meets at the Town Hall next week.

A report to go before cabinet members says: "Officers at Preston City Council supported Climate Action Preston to apply for National Lottery funding for the project and, following a positive outcome in February, facilitated contact with community organisations in Preston to act as local ‘hubs’ for the delivery of project activities, including bike repair workshops.

"Several organisations have already expressed an interest in offering space to run these.

"Despite this positive progress, a major constraint to project delivery has been identified which is access to a local space to store donated bicycles. None of the community organisations with which Preston Pedals is working can offer storage space for this purpose.

"The initial reason for bringing the project to the attention of the head of waste services was to provide a means to re-use many of the abandoned bikes that the service collects each week.

"In the discussion that followed, the issue of bike storage was also raised and following this, the head of waste services was able to identify a storeroom at the Argyll Road depot that would be suitable for storage."

The offer will initially be for a six month period, with an option for a further six months if it works well.

In return for access to the space, Preston Pedals has offered to run a free bicycle repair and maintenance session for council staff based at Argyll Road.

"The head of waste services welcomes this proposal as many of his staff are already cycling to work and he anticipates that more will do so as the cost of transport increases in the autumn," adds the report.

Julie Ridley, the Preston Pedals project manager, said "We are grateful to PCC in recognising the importance of our project in enabling more people to take to two wheels instead of four, and saving the world's resources by using bikes that otherwise would end up in landfill.

"In this way, Preston Pedals is seeking to address both the climate crisis and the worsening cost of living crisis."