Cycling UK hosted a showcase event in December, where we had an opportunity to demonstrate the work we do, at Newton Dee Campus. Hosted at a project partner venue, at Newton Dee village, we were able to reveal and celebrate their new fleet of non-standard cycles. Cycling UK linked with funders, volunteers, delivery partners, local campaigners, elected members and project participants to highlight the work the Aberdeenshire Bothy has achieved to date. This was an opportunity to show the value of cross-project work with other programmes Cycling UK run, such as the Cycle Access Fund. Aberdeen business news published the following article about the event.
Transforming habits through cycling in Northeast Scotland - Aberdeen Business News.

• Continued delivery with home schooling group
• Continued monthly led rides in four towns and weekly ride in Ellon
• Delivery of pop-up events including security marking and come and try events
• Delivery of Dr Bikes
• Delivery of maintenance sessions

Cycling UK made good progress towards our annual targets in Q4 working engaging 327 people through 41 walking, wheeling and cycling activities.

This project supports the Accessibility and Inclusion objective of addressing and reducing barriers that prevent people from participating in active travel such as cost, culture, health, ability, and geographical location. All activities are offered for free, and the project team provide support across six ITTs in Aberdeenshire –ensuring that adequate support is available in rural towns across the region. The activities consider a range of physical fitness and ability and are designed with the participants in mind – including giving details of routes beforehand, ensuring that participants know what to bring on the day, offering the use of an e-bike for those who don’t have their own cycle or for whom cycling a standard bike would limit their capacity to participate. The project team also work in partnership with other local organisations to ensure that their support is reaching those who could benefit most.

For example, in Q4:
Cycling UK worked with The Family Centre at Inverurie covering puncture repair and bike care. The centre provide a targeted, timely and multi-agency programme of support to children and their families in the area.

This project supports the Accessibility and Inclusion objective of addressing and reducing barriers that prevent people from participating in active travel such as cost, culture, health, ability, and geographical location. All activities are offered for free, and the project team provide support across six ITTs in Aberdeenshire – ensuring that adequate support is available in rural towns across the region. The activities consider a range of physical fitness and ability and are designed with the participants in mind – including giving details of routes beforehand, ensuring that participants know what to bring on the day, offering the use of an e-bike for those who don’t have their own cycle or for whom cycling a standard bike would limit their capacity to participate. The project team also work in partnership with other local organisations to ensure that their support is reaching those who could benefit most.

For example, in Q3 2024:

• We delivered a series of sessions to a home-schooling group working through Bikeability levels and cycling as family groups, followed by led rides once people were ready for this. We also used e-bikes where this reduced barriers for people to participate.
• We continued delivery of sessions at Westhill asylum hotel facility. On one day, we delivered eight 30-minute sessions which allowed us to engage with 63 participants. Stella's Voice and Angus Cycle Hub also attended to support bike maintenance and to drop off 30 bikes for the participants to use.

Q2 has been a busy period for Cycling UK with high numbers of family cycling sessions delivered over the holiday period as well as the delivery of Dr Bike sessions which again proved to be very popular. We delivered a series of Ranger Rides in collaboration with the Aberdeenshire Ranger Service and our Cycle Ride Leader volunteers have been planning and delivering their own led rides.

This project supports the Accessibility and Inclusion objective of addressing and reducing barriers that prevent people from participating in active travel such as cost, culture, health, ability, and geographical location. All activities are offered for free, and the project team provide support across six ITTs in Aberdeenshire –ensuring that adequate support is available in rural towns across the region. The activities consider a range of physical fitness and ability and are designed with the participants in mind – including giving details of routes beforehand, ensuring that participants know what to bring on the day, offering the use of an e-bike for those who don’t have their own cycle or for whom cycling a standard bike would limit their capacity to participate. The project team also work in partnership with other local organisations to ensure that their support is reaching those who could benefit most.

For example, in Q2 2024:

• Supporting individuals with health conditions, e.g., A husband and wife contacted us about trying out e -bikes. The husband has health issues and hadn't ridden a bike in a number of years and has only walked for short distances. They loved the support from our Development officers and the opportunity to try the e-bikes. They said it was the “best day in a long time”.
• Supporting women to cycle.
• Loaned cycles to people who otherwise would not be able to access an e-bike.
• We have supported people to be able to travel on safe cycle routes they were previously unaware of so that they can now complete these everyday journeys independently.

The Aberdeenshire Bothy team have delivered a series of mechanical-led maintenance sessions across all six ITTs, working with The Bikery and Cyclegarden, which have been popular and received good feedback.

The Aberdeenshire Bothy’s led rides and health walks have been well attended with new people coming for the first time and they attended the Grampian wellbeing festival, hosting an information stall, offering e-bike try outs and teaching puncture repair.

The Aberdeenshire Bothy team continue to have good social media reach, with the Bothy’s Facebook posts reaching 28,510 people in the last 90 days.

This project supports the Accessibility and Inclusion objective of addressing and reducing barriers that prevent people from participating in active travel such as cost, culture, health, ability, and geographical location. All activities are offered for free, and the project team provide support across six ITTs in Aberdeenshire –ensuring that adequate support is available in rural towns across the region. The activities consider a range of physical fitness and ability and are designed with the participants in mind – including giving details of routes beforehand, ensuring that participants know what to bring on the day, offering the use of an e-bike for those who don’t have their own cycle or for whom cycling a standard bike would limit their capacity to participate. The project team also work in partnership with other local organisations to ensure that their support reaches those who could benefit most.

For example, in Q1 2024, the Aberdeenshire Bothy team:

• were part of the Grampian Wellbeing Festival (offering advice, maps, puncture repair sessions and e-bike try outs)
• attended Inverurie Health & Wellbeing event (hosting information stall about the Bothy)
• delivered a bike maintenance session to a Girl Guides group in partnership with Sustrans iBike Officer.
• delivered a full day of basic Better Biking sessions in Westhill to a group of asylum seekers and refugees, reaching sixty-five participants.
• will follow up with further sessions are there are 240 people staying at the facility with the majority keen to access bikes.
• provided a Dr Bike service at Westhill checking and repairing twenty-five bikes to allow them to be used by participants and facility users.
• delivered a bespoke maintenance session with Central Aberdeenshire Community Mental Health team and one of their clients who had not been able to ride his bike for months due to a puncture. He was able to ride home from today's session.