Huntingdon: Bikes Refurbished At Prison

21 June 2012, 13:38 | Updated: 21 June 2012, 13:46

Inmates at a Cambridgeshire prison are earning qualifications by refurbishing bicycles.

The bikes, which were stolen and then recovered but not claimed by anybody, are donated to HMP Littlehey, near Huntingdon, by Cambridgeshire Police.

They are then cleaned up and donated to charity.

25 bicycles have so far been donated to the prison, with three of them painted red, white and blue for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

The scheme, set up by the Prison Governor and Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire Police, aims to allow prisoners to give something back to the community and give them the chance to earn qualifications at the same time.

Chief Constable Simon Parr said: "The aim of this venture is for the prisoners to contribute towards the restorative justice agenda and provide a service to the community.

We donate 'run down' cycles to HMP Littlehey which have been recovered but no-one has identified them.

The prisoners then refurbish them and they are donated to charitable causes agreed by the force and HMP Littlehey.

The cycles are donated to worthy individuals and charitable causes such as victims of crime and disadvantage families who can't get their children to school.

By supplying projects with these cycles it gives them a really good starting point, for example the Bike Bank in South Cambridgeshire which provide bicycles to young people who are not in education or employment, who are socially isolated and would benefit from cycling for health reasons."

David Taylor, Governor of Littlehey added: "This is a really good example of partnership working. 

It provides real work and qualifications for young offenders to assist with their resettlement on release and also enables them to provide some payback to society when cycles are donated to worthy community causes."