Family cycling fun
Looking for a healthy outdoor activity to keep the family busy over the school holidays? A clever bike project, run in partnership with Buckinghamshire Council, FCC, South Bucks Hospice, and HMP Aylesbury, can help.
The popular bike scheme sees Prisoners in HMP Aylesbury refurbish donated bikes then sold from Buckinghamshire Council reuse shop at Aston Clinton Recycling Centre, managed by FCC, to raise vital funds for South Bucks Hospice. The successful project has been running for over 10 years and has recently undergone an expansion.
Penny Peacock manager at the Aston Clinton reuse site said, “As soon as we put a notice out to say we have bikes available, they are snapped up the same day. It’s a great way to make quality bikes affordable for families and it provides a great transport and exercise option for others.”
Neil Hawes, Industries Manager at HMP Aylesbury said, “This is a very popular workshop within the prison. The project has enabled us to sustain a daily workflow for the men, allowing them to maintain a consistent work routine in custody. Our Prisoners love the idea of assisting the community while gaining valuable skills”.
South Bucks Hospice CEO Nick Callaghan said, “The scheme makes it affordable to get families outdoors in the summer. It is a great community initiative that is good for everyone involved including our patients who benefit from the money raised.”
Gemma Green, FCC’s Reuse Development Manager said: ‘The bike refurbishment project has been empowering prisoners for more than 10 years to gain skills, confidence and qualifications and helping improve employment prospects upon release. Beyond empowering individuals, our partnership also has a positive environmental impact. By refurbishing unwanted bikes, we reduce emissions associated with building new bicycles. Moreover, cycling is the most sustainable form of transportation; therefore, by promoting eco-friendly transportation, we are contributing to a greener planet.’
The project partners are calling for those who have unwanted bikes to donate them for refurbishment. These bikes can be dropped off at any of Buckinghamshire Council’s 10 Household Recycling Centres:
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About South Bucks Hospice
South Bucks Hospice is a charity serving South Bucks based in High Wycombe. It receives less than 4% of its funding from statutory sources. The majority of the funding comes from the generosity of the community.
The hospice supports more than 600 patients each year living with life-limiting or life-threatening illnesses. It offers patient-centred care to individuals through the provision of specialist palliative, psychotherapeutic and lymphoedema care. It also supports families and their carers in many ways but particularly through counselling.
Formally established in 1986, South Bucks Hospice offers care designed to meet the societal changes we face as people live longer. As the only day hospice in South Buckinghamshire, it serves over 350,000 people.
About FCC Environment
FCC Environment is one of the UK’s leading recycling and waste management companies, providing a range of services, from collecting business and municipal waste to recycling and processing, and the generation of green energy from waste.
Our approach is to minimise the amount of waste that ends up in landfill by transforming it into valuable resources wherever possible, helping local authorities and businesses deal with their waste as efficiently as possible while meeting all statutory and regulatory requirements.
We employ more than 55,000 people worldwide and nearly 2,400 people across the UK to operate a wide range of waste management sites developed to meet the needs of our customers.
At FCC Environment, we recycle 1.6m tonnes of waste and generate more than 117MW of green energy each year.
Our five core services:
• Business waste solutions
• Municipal services
• Recycling
• Green energy
• Waste processing
To find out more about FCC Environment please visit https://www.fccenvironment.co.uk/
