Community gets stuck in to help build cycle shelter at Fenland school

A Fenland school has a new cycle shelter thanks to community efforts and funding from Cambridgeshire County Council.

The council funded the shelter at All Saints Academy in March after it was recognised the school in County Road lacked enough cycle storage.

The primary school heavily promotes sustainable travel through the Junior Travel Ambassadors scheme run jointly by the county council and the Department for Transport.

As well as the cash from the council the school's parent teacher association and friends of All Saints paid for decking and other items while Ridgeons, the builders' merchants, donated other essentials such as post fix, pea gravel and cement for the bases. And a school governor donated a tonne of gravel.

Ruth Johnson, a teaching assistant at the school who helped co-ordinate the project, said: "The original quote for groundworks was eye-watering, however, after consultation, we found an affordable, alternative solution - a community working group.

"Volunteers kindly gave up their time to help the children with the new bike shelter.

Whilst the bike shelter installation was going on, we also had a working party of gardeners. The gardening team was led by Hayley Dolbear and included a number of parents, children and a volunteer from the community, Jon Carpanini.

"This has been a very successful demonstration of how the community can work together on a project which benefits both the children of All Saints and the wider community, as sustainable travel reduces air pollution across the town."

All Saints was awarded a Silver Level STARS Award by Modeshift Stars Schools. These awards are supported by the DfT. All Saints has also been nominated for a regional school of the year award too.