Bikeability Trust appoints new trustees to deliver cycle training goal

The Bikeability Trust has appointed Imran Hussain and John Jackson to its board as it begins to move forward with a vision to deliver cycle training for 5 million children.

To be delivered as part of this Government’s £2 billion fund for cycling and walking, the Department for Transport funded cycle training was promised as part of the Government’s manifesto for active travel with the pledge that no child would go without. Previously just half of the school population had access to cycle training via Bikeability.

Emily Cherry, Executive Director of the Bikeability Trust says: “The Bikeability Trust welcomes the appointments of Imran and John at a critical time for the cycling community. We are entering 2021 with a new vision and direction to help realise the Prime Minister’s ambitions for cycle training for every child and adult as set out in the ‘Gear Change’ vision. Imran and John will add their diverse expertise to the Board and help steer our mission of ensuring 5 million children can access Bikeability by 2025.”

Imran Hussain brings over twenty years’ experience as a youth worker working with disadvantaged and hard-to-reach young people.

He has taken an active role in improving cycling participation in black and minority ethnic communities in Bradford as a Bikeability instructor and a British Cycling Ride Leader. The Trust saw Imran’s experience in working with under-represented groups as invaluable to helping develop the mission for all groups to see cycling as an essential skill for life.

John Jackson, an active cyclist and Cycling National Standards Instructor since 2013, has a background in business consultancy.

He will bring a broad experience of business operations with particular focus on human resources, business growth, organisational development, company divestments, acquisitions, and integrations.

Alison Hill, Chair of Trustees added: “At The Bikeability Trust, we are an ambitious force for change. We are creating a movement to ensure everyone can access cycling as an essential life skill. We provide the leading cycle training programme in England and in five years, The Bikeability Trust will have helped more than five million children take up Bikeability cycle training. We will have also offered cycle training to thousands more families and adults.”

In 2019/20, 420,407 Bikeability training places were delivered in England (outside London, where Bikeability is funded by Transport for London). To read about how your locality can make the most of Bikeability cycle training, catch the Trust’s introductory document here.