Pupils, teachers, and parents across Central Bedfordshire are being encouraged to walk, wheel, or jump on their bikes and scooters for the 2023 Big Walk and Wheel schools challenge.

Central Bedfordshire Council, with the support of sustainable transport charity Sustrans, is promoting the two-week national school challenge, which runs from Monday 20 March to Friday 31 March.

Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel will inspire pupils to make active journeys to school, improve air quality where they live, and help them to discover how these changes benefit their world.

The challenge is open to all schools, it’s free to take part and there are daily prizes to be won. The idea is to persuade pupils, teachers, and parents to leave their cars at home and choose active travel for their school journey. The Big Walk and Wheel challenge

Lower and primary schools are once again taking part in a Christmas challenge; counting walking, scooting and cycling trips to school to see if they can travel virtually to visit Santa in Lapland.

We organise the challenge, in partnership with sustainable transport charity Sustrans. So far, 24 schools have signed up to take part in this year’s challenge which runs from Monday 28 November to Friday 9 December.

We’ll be collecting bikes for re-use on 7 May, 10am - 3pm at Preen CIC, Unit 2 Shortmead Industrial Estate, Sun Street, Biggleswade SG18 0BP.

Children, teachers, and parents are encouraged to walk, wheel, or jump on their bikes and scooters in The Big Walk and Wheel 2022.

With the support of sustainable transport charity Sustrans, we're promoting the two-week national school challenge, which runs from Monday 21 March to Friday 1 April.

Schools will compete to record the greatest number of pupils walking, wheeling, scooting, and cycling to school, whilst learning about the benefits of active travel along the way.

It is free to enter and will persuade parents and carers to leave their cars at home and choose to travel actively for their school journey instead.

If more than 15% of pupils from the school walk, wheel, cycle or scoot on each day of the challenge, classes will be entered into daily draws for rewards and prizes, including scooters.

Last year, over 30 schools from Central Bedfordshire took part in the Big Pedal, with families amassing 72,093 walking, scooter and cycle trips during the 10-day challenge. This was a fantastic achievement and a high target to beat this year: so please ask your child’s school to sign up for The Big Walk and Wheel challenge.

We will be holding several bike recycling events across Central Bedfordshire in November.

Sandy Sports Centre (back car park). 1 November, 8am – 2pm.

Priory House, Council Offices, Chicksands. 2 November, 8am – 2pm.

Flitwick Leisure Centre. 4 November, 8am – 2pm.

Houghton Regis Leisure Centre. 8 November, 8am – 2pm.

Tiddenfoot Leisure Centre. 9 November, 8am – 2pm.

Donated bikes change lives - some have helped the long-term unemployed get back into work, and others have provided a source of transport and independence for children in care.

Cycle to Work Day is for absolutely everyone. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t cycled in years or have never cycled at all. This is just about giving it a go. Cycle to Work Day

If you’re not travelling to work at the moment, just take a leisurely ride in your local area. All rides can be logged at Love to Ride

The Travel Choices team will be holding another bike donation event on Thursday 12 August from 8am to 4pm at Saxon Leisure Centre car park, Biggleswade.

Make cycling your daily exercise during Bike Week (30 May - 5 June). Bike Week, delivered by Cycling UK, is an annual celebration to showcase cycling and how brilliant it is. Join thousands of people all across the UK and enjoy the simple pleasure of riding a bike.

Pupils in Bedfordshire will join thousands of children across the UK to take to their feet for Living Streets’ Walk to School Week.

Walk to School Week takes place during Living Streets’ National Walking Month each May, with this year’s campaign focusing on the health and environmental benefits of walking to school.

Walk to School Week classroom packs will explore how being active helps children gain ‘superpowers’ that improve their health, happiness and local environment.

Pupils in Central Bedfordshire cycled, scooted and walked an amazing 72,093 journeys during Sustrans Big Pedal which ran from 19 to 30 April 2021.

This year’s theme was ‘Amazing Journeys’ where pupils learnt about the benefits of active travel as well as discovering some amazing facts from around the world.

Due to increased demand, bike stock is very low and there is a waiting list.

If you have a bike that you would like to donate, it can be dropped off at the Luton depot (Unit 42, Portland Court, Kingsway, LU4 8AU).

Three bikes abandoned at railway stations in Bedfordshire have been renovated for NHS key workers at Biggleswade Hospital.

Govia Thameslink donated them to Central Bedfordshire Council and Luton Council’s bike recycling scheme, so they could be renovated for NHS key workers through the 'Bikes for Bedfordshire Health Heroes' scheme.

The scheme aims to give a ‘thank you’ to NHS workers and promote safe, sustainable travel, all at the same time. The bikes will help hospital staff get to and from work while maintaining social distancing and getting some valuable extra exercise.

Travel Choices is spreading its wings. From April, the Department for Transport (DfT) will fund an initiative for Biggleswade, Sandy and Arlesey under the banner of ‘Sustainable Travel Access to Railway Stations’ (STARS) along the East Coast Mainline Railway.

Thank you to everyone who donated to our bike recycling event at Saxon Pool and Leisure Centre, Biggleswade. We collected over 40 bikes which are now in the workshop being refurbished ready for reuse.

Schools in Central Bedfordshire were invited to take part in a Bike wheel Christmas wreath competition and we had some brilliant results. Pupils designed some amazing wreaths using recycled materials, the overall winner was Flitwick Lower School who used items from their wildlife garden to design a beautiful Christmas pudding. 

We are delighted that Robert Peel School, Sandy has been awarded Modeshift STARS School of the Region Award, with Dunstable St Augustine’s Academy being awarded runner-up, for their commitment to sustainable travel.

Our lower and primary schools stepped up to our two-week Santa challenge by making over 50 active journeys to Lapland. Pupils covered 103.358 miles of walking, scooting and cycling trips to school.

Thank you to everyone who donated a bike to our recycling scheme on Saturday 7 September in Flitwick. We received over 70 bikes which are currently being serviced, ready for their new homes.