At the start of the ‘What’s Stopping You?’ project, Dunbar Cycling Group was assisted to become constituted and launch and this group was closely involved in developing the project. A ‘What’s Stopping You ?’ leaflet and website were developed and a separate website for Dunbar Cycling Group. A guided rides leaflet was drafted and a ‘Bikefest’ event was organised as part of Dunbar Civic Week. This was attended by over 200 people.
One staff member attended a Cycling Scotland course to become an accredited ‘cycling trainer’ so as to be able to provide both on-road confidence training and to run ‘Learn to look after your bike’ classes. A course was organised to train 6 volunteers as ‘Weldtech Gold’ standard bike mechanics so that we have a group of qualified volunteers insured to run or assist with bike maintenance activities. Planning permission was eventually gained to site an old shipping container in the car park of the Hallhill Healthy Living Centre as a base for Dunbar Cycling Group and as a venue for Saturday morning ‘Fix your Bike’ sessions for where people can bring their bikes to make their own repairs. This is currently run by Sustaining Dunbar and a rota of volunteer mechanics. Work stands and tools, maintenance advice and support is provided.
There is an external notice board advertising local rides and cycling initiatives/campaigns. ‘Dr. Bike’ sessions, to carry out basic safety checks and adjustments on childrens’ and parents’ bikes, were started at Dunbar Primary School, alternating between the two campuses each Friday afternoon. We also worked with Dunbar Primary School to set up Bikeability Level 2 training for all P6 pupils so that this is now embedded in the curriculum and with Dunbar Grammar School to establish Bikeability Level 3 training for S2 pupils. We now have a qualified volunteer Bikeability instructor who offers cycle training at levels 1, 2, and 3, and have trained 120 P6 pupils. We’ve motivated a group of 12 parent volunteer to help out with Bikeability training at Dunbar Primary School and have worked to ensure that this is embedded in the curriculum and delivered during class time.
With funding from Cycling Scotland, we were able to issue vouchers to new and returning cyclists who make a commitment to regular utility cycling to enable them to pay for a bike service or to purchase accessories such as lights, panniers or waterproofs to encourage them onto their bikes. Participants were given personal support to plan which regular car journeys they could pledge to replace with cycling.
