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An initiative by Newry, Mourne and Down District Council to encourage more people to travel by bicycle has seen five schools in the district receive a free Level One Cycle Training session.
The initiative is facilitated by Sustrans NI and last week Killowen Primary School, Rostrevor got involved. Currently very few school children travel to school by bicycle.
Visiting the school last week to lend his support as the pupils took part in their training session, Council Chairperson, Councillor Michael Savage said, “I am delighted that the Council was able to secure funding to offer such valuable training to schools. As part of our Active Travel Masterplan our aim is to encourage our residents to take more journeys by walking and cycling, including where possible, the journey to school. It was an honour for me to see at first hand the enthusiasm of the pupils and their teacher, Mrs Asiimwe, as they took part in the session today. I would also like to thank Diane Whyte and Amanda Hodkinson from SustransNI who undertook the training with the pupils.”
Sustrans Northern Ireland Director, Caroline Bloomfield said, “We know many children want to cycle to school so it is vitally important we give them the skills to do this safely. We are therefore delighted to provide cycle training at five schools in Newry, Mourne and Down District Council. Since we completed the Active Travel Masterplan for the area, the Council has shown great interest in improving walking and cycling for the local population which has huge health, environmental and economic benefits.”
Other schools who took part in the week of training sessions were Glasswater Primary School, Crossgar, St Mary’s Primary School, Dunsford, Holy Cross Primary School, Atticall and Killyleagh Integrated Primary school.
