New bikes for families in Southwark

Families supported to reduce transport costs.

Published: 07/07/2022

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We’ve partnered with the Bike Project to offer free bikes to families in Southwark. Our Southwark Local Area Plan (LAP) team have purchased 27 bikes to give to local families to help them reduce transport costs and give them the opportunity to cycle for fun while getting more active.

At the first workshop last month, local parents and children who didn’t know how to ride a bike were taught by an experienced instructor. Everyone was also taught cycle safety tips including how to navigate safely on roads and through traffic. The workshop helped everyone to build the skills they needed to cycle safely as a greener and cost-free way of getting around.

Tackling childhood obesity in Southwark

Southwark has the highest levels of child obesity in the country with over 40% of Year 6 pupils considered overweight or obese. Currently, over half of adults in Southwark are overweight or obese.

Our partnership with Bike Project helps to tackle this problem by equipping people with the skills and equipment they need to commute safely while getting more exercise. We are piloting this initiative over 12 months to find out who much these families in Southwark will benefit, especially over the longer term.

Yamana Zedan, Local Area Plan lead for Southwark, said: “Working with the Bike Project has been a great way for us to support parents and families in Southwark to become more active and save money at the same time. We have purchased all 27 bikes so that none of the families need to worry to about how they can afford to buy a new, reliable bike to use. The team at Bike Project have led in their expertise of teaching everyone involved how to cycle safely on roads, particularly around inner-city boroughs. We had a great time at the first of our four workshops last weekend, and it was great seeing Peabody residents having such a good time on their new bikes.”

Patricia Rodrigez, Southwark resident and Peabody customer, said: “The training session was amazing, especially for my little son who was able to learn how to ride a bike without the pedal pals within an hour with the help of the instructor. I was also given my dream bike complete with a basket at the front! The training covered how to be safe on the road - I didn’t know most of the information, such as how to follow road signs, how to use my arms to indicate when turning or looking over our shoulders to move safely. My son will need more practice for his balance so I’m planning to go to the park a few times a week to practice more.”

Local projects and activities

For more information on our local projects and activities in Southwark, please contact us.