As a keen supporter of both active travel and recycling, I was delighted to learn of a new social enterprise that combines the two. The Glasgow Bike Shed is based in Glasgow East End and will be recycling bicycles from a variety of local sources and working to promote safe cycling in the city. I paid Gregory and his team a visit today to see how things are fixing up, and took along my old bike to donate for refurbishment.

The scheme will offer classes for children and grown ups on how to cycle safely in the city, and workshops on how to maintain your own cycling gear and the shop will sell refurbished bikes and parts. To keep waste to a minimum, anything that cannot be used will be salvaged for scrap.

The team were really enthusiastic and rightly so. This is a great project and is exactly the sort of thing that Glasgow needs to see more of. Glasgow Bike Shed is offering the kind of imagination and creativity needed to tackle our health and environmental problems, something that is often lacking in government. It is great to see old bikes being put to use rather than just ending up in landfills and it was an added bonus to see the disused space at the rear of the Barrowlands being put to such good use. I hope that the plans to extend the refurbishment further can offer similar opportunities to small businesses, charities and social enterprises.

Schemes like this which promote active travel are invaluable. People will have the opportunity to learn new skills while getting more exercise and also helping reduce the numbers of cars on our roads. The first refurbished bikes should be ready soon, so if you fancy getting into cycling then why not pay them a visit or see their website for more details.