Pembrokeshire schools need bike racks to encourage kids to excerise

Preseli Pembrokeshire AM Paul Davies is pressing for more local secondary schools to provide bike racks for pupils so they can cycle to school.

If schools did more to encourage cycling it would not only help pupils to stay fit but would also help to ease traffic congestion, he says.

But Mr Davies, who is also shadow Welsh education minister, has heard from parents who won’t send their kids to school by bike because there’s nowhere dry and secure for them to leave their cycles.

Mr Davies tackled the First Minister on the subject in the Senedd this week.

“One way of promoting healthy living among schoolchildren is to encourage them to walk and cycle to school,” he said.

“But it appears that many schools do not provide space to store bicycles while the pupils are at school.”

He is now lobbying the Welsh Assembly Government to give guidance to local education authorities to encourage schools to ensure that bike storage is available.

“It’s extremely frustrating to think that children are willing to cycle to school but are being put off by a basic lack of facilities,” said Mr Davies.