BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
They fill in the application forms! It’s often as simple as that.
Produce a pukka business plan for your new cyclist-friendly amenity and then watch out for news of local and national cash handouts for integrated transport projects. When you see news of a grant scheme on this site and others, don’t dismiss it as a long-shot, it’s not the national lottery, you stand a very good chance of getting every penny you asked for.
Naturally, you’ve got to make sure your project is of benefit to the wider community, and not just your business, but it’s a happy coincidence when the two meet in the middle.
Take, for instance, Mud Dock. This innovative Bristol-based IBD was awarded a grant of £50 000 from the Department of Transport’s Cycling Projects Fund to build a bike resource centre. The 99 sq m facility – currently subject to planning permission – will include secure indoor bike parking for up to 50 cycles, showers and changing rooms, towel’n’soap service, secure personal lockers, 24hr dry cleaning service and an information centre providing details of commuter routes and recreational trails, ‘bike buddy’ contacts, as well as acting as a distribution point for all local bike action group info.
The fund was matched by a grant from Bristol City Council.
The new building, designed by BBA Architects of Bath, will be integrated into Mud Dock’s existing site on The Grove. It will connect directly with the existing workshop whilst having its own access, enabling it to operate outside the current shop hours. In addition the roof over the Resource Centre will enable a 150 percent increase in the size of the Mud Dock cafe-terrace.
The resource centre could be operational by Spring 2003.
