Cycling Without Age Inverness wins £5000 grant to expand its trike services to Cradlehall and Scorguie areas of city
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A CITY cycling charity is getting set to expand its services thanks to to an injection of new funds.
Cycling Without Age Inverness, which uses trikes to get local elderly people out and about on fun, sociable trips, has been awarded £5000 by the Inverness Common Good Fund.
The donation covers the cost of a new trike – the fifth in the organisation’s fleet – which will be used to expand its services to elderly residents of the Cradlehall and Scorguie areas.
The group’s Mick Heath said: “Care homes there are quite difficult to reach with trikes, because by the time one gets there the battery has used a lot of power.
“So we are planning to keep trikes on site in those areas so that we can offer a better service.
“So far we have managed to organise buses that would take people to and from Eden Court, but it would be better if we could operate straight from there.”
The charity has also recently started operating around the Raigmore Hospital and UHI areas, with a first cycle around the Inverness Campus taking place on July 25.
Mr Heath said: “It was fantastic.
“It is very important for us to introduce the project within the Raigmore Estate.
“Many families live in deprived conditions and the area is surrounded by big roads, which creates isolation and doesn’t encourage people to start cycling.
“We are also trying to get children and their families involved and show them that there are some safe routes for cycling, like the Golden Bridge crossing the A9, but many wouldn’t think to cycle there.
“There has to be a common effort in order to provide better and safer infrastructures and make the parks safer, as well as informing people and giving the possibility to everyone to access cycling equipment.
“This is a public health matter. We want to encourage people to have a healthy lifestyle.
“That would reduce traffic and pollution on our streets.”
Run entirely by volunteers, Cycling Without Age Inverness is funded also by Hitrans and as part of the UK Cycling Without Age organisation.
