BASILDON Council is supporting a scheme to provide hundreds of bikes to disadvantaged children and adults across the borough.

The scheme, called Essex Pedal Power, is a bicycle giveaway programme where eligible residents will be loaned bikes for a six-month period. If residents use the bikes regularly, they will be able to keep the bike for free at the end of the loan.

All bike recipients will receive a bike, a helmet, a lock, a pump and lights, with the bikes being brand new from Raleigh. There are different styles of bikes to cater for the different needs of residents they're given to.

Cabinet Member for Health, Wellbeing, Leisure, Arts & Culture, Cllr Jeff Henry, said: "This is a really fantastic initiative that will transform the lives of our residents that receive the bikes.

"The scheme will support groups such as our local hospital staff and disadvantaged young people, to enable them to be able to cycle to work, school, or college rather than take a long walk or by using other transport.

"It will save residents money, it will reduce our borough's environmental impact, and hopefully the bike recipients will see how beneficial active travel can be."

The bikes will be given out from March 2023 directly to Basildon Hospital staff, to local businesses for employees in need, to targeted estates across the borough, as well as being distributed through community organisations.

The programme is a community-based partnership including Basildon Council, Sport England, Essex County Council, Active Essex, The Active Wellbeing Society, Basildon Hospital and the Basildon and Brentwood Alliance, with the programme being funded by the Sport England Local Delivery Pilot and the London Marathon Charitable Trust.