York Bike Belles

About our organisation

York Bike Belles is an award-winning charitable, not for profit organisation. We work towards a vision of York as a healthy, green and kind city, where everyone thrives, now and in a sustainable future.

Our work is transformational. We enable residents of all ages, abilities and life situations to walk and cycle as the natural way to get around York, while ALSO improving well-being, community life, green spaces, and tackling inequalities and the climate and nature crises.

We have been working in York since 2013. We incorporated as a not for profit Community Interest Company (CIC) in February 2020. All our Community Interest Company information is filed online at Companies House. Important documents include the Constitution and Community Interest Benefit Statement. Please do have a read of our CIC Annual Report 2022-23 and CIC Accounts 2022-23.

York Bike Belles CIC is led by a Board of 6 Directors. The Directors are local volunteers from all walks of life, passionate about increasing everyday walking and cycling in York. We have developed a York Bike Belles CIC Five Year Strategy 2023 – 2028.

We have a core delivery team of 3+ paid staff and 20+ community volunteers. We offer an annual Media and Communications Internship . The YBB Team are all trained to carry out their roles competently, including training in cycle skills, ride and walk leading, bike mechanics, first aid, safeguarding, engagement methods, digital skills and nature-based wellbeing. We pride ourselves in making all our activities safe, professional, inclusive, supportive, friendly and fun! Have a look at our latest Health and Safety, Privacy and Safeguarding Policies.

We have a small community fleet of 7 bikes – 2 Cycling Without Age Triobike Taxis, 1 electric bike and 4 easy to use beginner bikes, plus child-carrying equipment. Most of the fleet are stored and looked after free of charge, thanks to the generous support of our sponsor, Cycle Heaven Bike Shop.

Our work and activities are underpinned by our organisational values – we respond to need, we are person-centric and inclusive, we are professional and effective, we innovate and continually improve, we make positive change happen, and we leave a sustainable legacy .

Our funded activities are offered free of charge to York residents. We rely on donations, grants and sponsorship to fund our work. We were most grateful for 2022 project funding from Sport England, The National Lottery Community Fund, Northern CCIF fund, Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership, Benenden Health, City of York Council, Chocolate Works Care Village, Two Ridings Community Foundation, Dunnington Events, St Chads Church, My Sight York, St Nicks, the Purey Cust Trust, Local Giving and the Postcode Neighbourhood Trust.

About our activity programme

We offer an integrated programme of regular cycling, walking and nature activities, communications and volunteer opportunities, all year round. Participants can enter the programme at any point by engaging with us online or joining an activity, and move from one activity to another as suits.

Participants’ confidence, knowledge and skills steadily increases, and they increasingly enjoy walking, cycling and connecting to nature, until it becomes part of their everyday life.

More about our work

There are significant inequalities in our area of work. We tackle these inequalities by prioritising work with people in groupings who are often under-represented in walking, cycling, physical activity and having access to nature, and can be marginalised. This includes women and girls, older people (over 60), the elder community (over 80), those with mental and physical health challenges and disabilities, young people (16 – 25), people on lower incomes, LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/ Questioning +), BAMER (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic, Refugee) and lower income groups. Have a look at our latest Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy.

We focus on supporting people into local, everyday walking and cycling for independent transport, and reducing car use. Our work is based on what is needed in the York community and society as a whole. It is dynamic, developing in response to feedback and what is happening in our community and the wider world.

We continually look for opportunities to be creative and innovative. We connect people with nature and promote, protect and enhance biodiversity as an integral part of our practice. We explore ways to improve York’s public spaces and routes so they are better places for people who walk and cycle, with less traffic, and more trees, plants, and wildlife.

We aim to leave a sustainable legacy from all our work. Examples include creating long-term buddy schemes, developing online learning courses and producing accessible online resources, such as routes, maps, videos and audio trails.

We work strategically across the city and are embedded in York’s community network, working cooperatively with multiple partners and as part of city networks, including York CVS, City of York Council and Live Well York. We currently deliver activities in partnership with Cycle Heaven, York St John University, Chocolate Works Care Village, MySight York, and the Humber Coast and Vale Green Social Prescribing Programme.

We advocate for better infrastructure – more city space for walking and cycling, an inclusive approach to city mobility, and to keep York’s walking and cycling paths and linked green spaces safe, accessible, convenient and constantly being improved. Our priorities are to improve walking and cycling routes for safety, accessibility and biodiversity. We support the Wheels for Wellbeing Guide to Inclusive Cycling.

Our Programme Manager has over 20 years experience as a sustainable transport and behaviour change professional. She facilitated York’s independent Walk Cycle Forum between 2017 and 2019. We support the collective Walk Cycle Vision for York that emerged from this Forum. Our community volunteering work forms part of York’s international Cities of Service Coalition.

Environmental sustainability is at the heart of what we do. We prioritise work that tackles the climate and nature emergencies. We ensure our work has as low an environmental impact as possible, and enhances the biodiversity of the natural world. All our team are home-based and walk, cycle or take public transport for their work. We ask participants to take sustainable transport to our activities if they can. We source environmentally sustainable products from local suppliers and locally-sourced refreshments and biodegradable materials at events. We use renewal energy, minimise water use and waste in our main office, use recycled office supplies and cycle deliverers. We publicly celebrate our environmental measures. We are a member of One Planet York, a collaborative movement of organisations and individuals working towards a sustainable York. Have a look at our latest Environmental Sustainability Policy.

Accessibility

We make all our communications, activities, services and resources as accessible as possible to people of all ages, abilities and life situations, with particular consideration of the needs stated by our priority groups. Examples include tailored support into cycling for those with health challenges through Start Cycling with Cake Confidence; assisted Cycling Without Age Rides in Triobike Taxis for elders; sensory Nature Walks for the visually-impaired community; and offer of online and other printed information in alternative formats for those with disabilities. We provide clear accessibility information in any promotion of our activities. We also work with specialist disability organisations to meet any additional needs , such as facilitating all-ability bike hire or carer support.

Please let us know if you would like any of this website, online or other printed information in Easy Read, large print or audio, or if you’d like someone to talk anything through with you. If you have any feedback about accessibility and how we can improve, please email yorkbikebelles@gmail.com.

Recognition

“We recognise York Bike Belles as an outstanding charitable organisation in the city”, Joe Micheli, Head of Communities, City of York Council

In November 2023, our Programme Manager, Sheridan Piggott, was nationally recognised as an ‘Industry Mogul’ in Cycling UK’s list of 100 Women in Cycling.

In July 2022, our service was “Highly Commended” at the annual York Sport Awards as follows:

“The York Bike Belles (YBB) Team undertake invaluable work within our city, not only giving care home residents the opportunity to enjoy a bike ride and engage with their community, but also actively enabling the wider public to exercise and enjoy an environmentally beneficial form of transport.”

In 2021, we received support from the regional Humber, Coast and Vale Health and Care Partnership (Green Social Prescribing Programme) who said: “York Bike Belles CIC have been a stand out organisation for us as they uniquely intertwine the active sector (through cycling) with connecting to the outdoors and nature”. Sport England’s Head of Development called the Start Cycling with Cake Confidence scheme “amazing”.

In 2019, we were chosen to feature as a good practice project in Public Health England’s case study for York (part of the “Everybody Active Every Day” framework). And we featured in a summer 2019 exhibit at the Eden Project as an example of a “Guardian of the Future – passionate people and projects making a real difference to the global climate”.

In 2018, we gave a presentation in the House of Commons to the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group (APPCG) about good practice in women and cycling.

In 2017, we featured as a “Story for Change” in the ground-breaking 2017 Zero Carbon Britain report.

In 2016, York Bike Belles #travelwithtots work won a national award for Excellence in Cycling from Modeshift.

Volunteers!

We are always looking for community volunteers to help with our work, whether as a Pedaller or Companion for Cycling Without Age Rides, a Cycling Buddy, a Nature Walk or Ride Leader or an Income Generation volunteer.

Have a look at our Volunteer pages for the latest opportunities. You can also read our latest Volunteer Policy.

Walk and cycle with us into a healthy, green and kind future!