Business leaders meet to promote employee cycling

On 25th November, 18 people attended MK’s first Business Cycling Breakfast to promote employee cycling and a cycling competition for businesses during Winter Wheelers 1st-25th December. The event was hosted by Willen Hospice in CMK.

After an introduction by chair Deborah Cooper of MK Cycle Forum, Tony Nelson, Principal of The Hazeley Academy, talked about his school’s ambition to see 90% of students walking or cycling to school.

Jonathan Stone of Trek Bikes talked about using a heated clothes rack as a practical alternative to the more expensive installation of showers.

Richard Scott, chair of the Employee Forum at Volkswagen Financial Services explained how his team had undertaken an exercise of postcode mapping to discover that 230 of its 1200 staff lived less than 8 minutes away from work by bicycle. He talked about VWFS had registered with Cycle to Work schemes, relaxed staff dress codes, helped inexperienced cyclists practice riding in the company car park and lent e-bikes for journeys to business meetings.

Leigh Richards of Nextbike said “mobility as a human right” and explained how Nextbike offers cycle use across MK at £5 per day and supports Cycle Day At Work initiatives.

Martin Swift of Cycle Saviours talked about how to reduce bicycle waste, saying “there’s no such thing as a write-off bike” and old bikes are welcome at Cycle Saviours’ education-funded refurbishment operation in Stacey Bushes.

Ellie Williamson of MK Council talked about various support services offered by the Council, including Bikeability Training, Sustainable Travel grants, quarterly cycling competitions and the Gear Change unit on Witan Gate. Colleague Raeesa Chowdury outlined details of the Winter Wheelers competition 1st-25th December.

MK Mayor Mohammed Khan talked about the Council’s vision of a healthy and low-carbon community and Ian Revell, CEO of MK Community Foundation, encouraged attendees to join and bring other cyclists to the Cycling Santas MK world record attempt on 16th December.

Finally Phil Murphy and Clive Faine of MK Cycle Forum expressed their positive outlook on the future of cycling in MK.

Following a post-event evaluation, organisers agreed to run a similar event, inviting other business leaders, in three months.

Deborah Cooper said: “This meeting highlighted what a lot of valuable work is going on to encourage people to use the great infrastructure we already have in the borough. There is a lot more to do to improve infrastructure we have, to ensure new developments make cycling easy, and to ensure even more people are encouraged to travel sustainably.”

One thought on “Business leaders meet to promote employee cycling”

  1. Wow what a great initiative, going to the root of the problem and asking those who are mandated to make change to buy into everyday cycling.

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