Caring about biodiversity and wildlife

Clare and Ian are two people dedicated to wildlife and biodiversity volunteering in the North of England.

Clare is a remarkable wildlife enthusiast in Chester. She tirelessly monitors the city's greenway, documenting local wildlife with fellow volunteer Ian.

Their dedication recently earned them an award for Cheshire's most wildlife sightings.

Clare excels at sharing her wildlife wisdom, sparking curiosity about lesser-known species. She actively engages with us, regularly doing tasks and goes above and beyond. She is a passionate and knowledgeable advocate for wildlife.

Ian is also a standout for wildlife volunteering. He extends his support to other volunteers and employees. He helps with tasks like advertising, site checks, and maintenance reporting.

He has also become a Wildlife Champion in partnership with Chester Zoo. He now actively participates in the 'Networks for Nature' project to enhance biodiversity on the National Cycle Network.

You can also  read about Cathal,  a volunteer in Northern Ireland, who brought people together to help bring a local greenway to life with biodiversity.

Or  Will's story from Bristol , who as a volunteer shares his experience of supporting the wild animals and plants on the Network.

Making active travel the heart of Chichester

In Chichester, a local group of people - Jeff, Adam, George, Ian, Martyn, Chris and Tom - comes together.              

They use their expertise, experience and effort to make sure that active travel is at the heart of all planning in their local area.

This ranges from getting good cycle storage on every housing development, to planning strategic town links. They also provide their feedback and this turned into council policy.

#AndSheCycles campaigning for girls and women

  #AndSheCycles   is a national campaign in Scotland. It aims to get more teenage girls and young women cycling.

Volunteers have helped the campaign from the very beginning. They have helped do research about why fewer teenage girls cycle regularly compared to boys. They have also, supported the all-girls cycling groups in schools across Scotland.

We now also have   #AndSheCycles  social media volunteers, who will use their creativity to spread the message! All the volunteers are bringing a passion to the empowering aims of the campaign.

Supporting our teams at Sustrans

People support our teams across the UK in many different ways. Some like to help out with administrative tasks or communications. Others contribute with their specialist skills and expertise to particular departments. Some volunteer from home while others like to join us in one of our offices.

Supporting volunteering across the UK.

Anna volunteers with the Sustrans-wide volunteering team, supporting us with our communications. This includes proofreading volunteer news articles and emails, editing video subtitles, and reviewing volunteering stories.

She has a good eye for detail and helps keep our volunteering news content accessible and engaging.

She also got to be a part of a recent volunteering video. We spent an afternoon filming on the Bristol Bath railway path for a video about our online volunteering platform, Assemble.

Anna is always happy to try something new, and has the courage to question. A great support to our team.

Supporting the cause with your expertise.

Mike volunteers in the London office. He is a retired industry professional, who has been helping both the Network and Built environment teams in London.

He has helped on improvement projects along the National Cycle Network, sharing his professional expertise and experience with the team. His contributions have been widely noticed across the office. They couldn’t be more grateful to have him on board.

I Bike getting schools active in Scotland

I Bike is done in Scottish schools, led by a team supported by volunteers. 

An important activity is teaching children to cycle for the first time.

Rosemary, a volunteer in Edinburgh, says: "I volunteer with I Bike, because I believe it matters that every child has the opportunity to learn to ride a bike and develop the skills to cycle safely and with confidence. The highlight has been enjoying the sense of achievement and delight children feel when they first discover they can ride a bike."

Carmen, volunteering in Edinburgh, East Lothian and West Lothian, has been instrumental in various activities, including teaching primary school children to ride, assisting with Bikeability sessions, and leading bike rides for young people.

She particularly supported the #AndSheCycles project by leading girls-only bike rides for Tynecastle High School.

Carmen's dedication, as a qualified Cycle Ride Leader, allowed girls from diverse backgrounds to explore their local area on two wheels, including a long ride to Portobello beach.

You can  read more about the impact of I Bike and the volunteers  in our blog too.

Keeping the community valley litter free

Ogmore Valley Priide are a local voluntary group in the Ogmore Valley, Wales.

They have done some fantastic work in the valley. This includes litter picking on the cycle path from Lewistown up Nantymoel. Quite an extensive area to cover.

They meet once a week, sometimes with school children, where they litter pick around the valley. They have also put up some bins along the cycle paths in Ogmore. They empty these themselves regularly using a wheelbarrow, collaborating with the local Council.

The Valley are very lucky to have such a great bunch of dedicated volunteers, who do not mind getting their hands dirty. They always do their very best to keep the Valley tidy. They also take their time and have patience to take out young people with them to educate on the value of not dropping litter.

Margaret is the main linchpin of the group along with Paul. Margaret herself is also a member of the Ogmore Valley Community Council. She is dedicated to trying to keep the Valley, including the cycle paths, litter free. It is not always easy or pleasant, but the group persevere.

An active community together in Belfast

Meet the people volunteering together at the Forth Meadow Community Greenway in Belfast - #OnCommonGround 

Belfast City Council received funding from Interreg to engage local people from all communities, regardless of historical sectarian divides, along a new greenway linking existing parks and open spaces, in north and west Belfast.

The focus was to provide support to build local people's confidence to lead walking and cycling groups, be nature guides and ambassadors in their area. They make up the Forth Meadow volunteering group.

They support each other and provide group walks and cycle rides, open to everyone. To get out and enjoy the glorious greenway, which has connected swathes of shared space in the north and west of Belfast to the new Transport Hub in the city centre.

Individual people stand out at different times, helping lead the walks and rides, getting the word out. Patricia, Helen and Charlie are great walk leaders, showing genuine care towards participants with understanding and respect to individuals. They make adjustment to suit everyone at the regular social walks.

Caroline, Karen, Dayne, and Mark continue to shine. Building up their skills, including bike mechanics, along with Aoife, Chris, Joanne, Kris and Mary. They have strengthened cycle ride teams, group inclusion and continue to bring sparkle to all events - from Community cycle picnic to Spooks ‘n Spokes.

There are many opportunities that come with volunteering, as local Mark can confirm. He signed up to lead cycle rides, and said:

“I first took part in this about a year and a half ago. The reason I joined was because I retired from work and I wanted to stay active. I wanted to learn new skills and I wanted to meet some new friends if that was possible.”

Fixing bicycles at local Active Travel Hub

The Stockton Active Travel hub has five dedicated people doing bike mechanics volunteering - Malcolm, John, Brian, Ron and Eric.

They are an incredibly valuable part of the Hub and keep us running. They fix bikes donated by the public. The cycles are then given to either community groups, asylum seekers and refugees, food bank users, or schools.

In addition to this, they go out into the community doing Dr Bike sessions, fix people's bikes, run maintenance courses and deliver Bikability training. The team supports so many different groups and individuals across Stockton-on-Tees to get out on their bikes. They volunteer every week and have done so for years. As our presence increases in the Tees Valley, and with the success of the Stockton Hub, it is clear that the volunteers are the glue of the Hub and active travel.

You can also  read Rowan's story from Wales , who took up bike mechanic volunteering during the pandemic. She found it useful to develop her skills, while studying for her mechanical engineering degree.

Community area leaders creating connections

Meet Kathy and John. They are both community area leaders in their local areas. They provide a valuable connection between our teams and local people in their community.  

Volunteering for better accessibility.

Kathy likes to connect people in her local area with Sustrans activities. To get people active and let them know about their local cycling opportunities. 

She also started an accessibility pilot project with the Trans Pennine Trail office. She responded to consultations and policies on behalf of the office and Sustrans. She wants to make sure that accessibility is at the forefront of everyone’s minds and improvements. 

Kathy provides advice and guidance to Sustrans employees looking to make sustainable changes. As well as liaising with the local authority on how changes can be implemented. 

Her knowledge is second to none. She has used her local knowledge and personal skills. All to assist people who struggle with access, due to restrictive physical barriers on their local paths.  

Kathy is extremely knowledgeable about the whole Network within Stockport. Kathy assists and guides people through the city to safely avoiding physical barriers on their path. 

She’s a leader in every sense of the word for the volunteering group and community.   Engaging the local community in looking after paths. 

John is highly motivated towards promoting active travel in and around Leeds. 

He is frequently tidying paths on the National Cycle Network and elsewhere in the city. He also often involves people from outside the group. He even got a group from Good Gym involved in clearing a part of the National Cycle Network route 66.  

John helped form a valuable link with an officer at the Leeds City Council, who he has regular catch-up meetings with. They have gone out on cycle rides with other volunteers to inspect physical barriers on paths and other issues.  

John is leading by his own example. He shows how volunteers continue to be local change makers.  

Getting people together on the Network

Meet Richard. One of 100s of people volunteering, who do different tasks on the National Cycle Network across the UK.

Richard is an enthusiastic volunteer. He was looking for something positive and active to do in his time off from a very desk-based working life.  Years ago, he wrote to a local trust to get some funds. With that he bought a wheelbarrow, spades, loppers, and protective equipment. He has since been doing regular task days with a local group of volunteers once a month.

"Our task days are a great way to get active in the outdoors, and a gentle way to get back into exercise after an illness or injury.  On our last task day, we counted around 350 bike riders using the National Cycle Network routes that we are helping to keep in good order".

He helps cut vegetation and look after Network signs around Hadley Wood, replacing, and refreshing faded or missing signs.

Richard also does a social cycle ride. He calls it the “mince pie run”. Lucky volunteers get to taste Richard’s wife’s baking! 

Encouraging school children to be active

Supporting local school children to travel actively in Larne.

Louise, volunteer at Linn Primary School in Larne, has dedicated her time to encourage students to embrace cycling, scootering, and walking to school.

She organises numerous events, including walking to school and activities within the school day. This ranges from the 'Big Walk and Wheel' to cycling sessions.

She actively contributes behind the scenes, including managing surveys and assisting with photoshoots and funders' visits.

Her volunteering contributions have led to more students cycling and walking to school. It has helped reduce car usage from 60% to 44% in three years. This has earned the school 'Bronze and Silver school mark' awards. Now with a path to Gold.

Looking after art on the Network

People of all ages in local communities around the UK have helped us paint and look after Millennium Mileposts near them.  

They have turned them into colourful, imaginative artwork and signposts on the National Cycle Network for everyone to enjoy.  

Peter is passionate and dedicated to looking after the paths in his local area. He has also been instrumental in surveying, looking after and repainting the Millennium Mileposts all across North Wales.

Peter has volunteered with school groups and projects, who have helped give mileposts a new design. He has prepare the posts for painting and assisted on the painting days with the groups.

Peter was also amongst the over 200 volunteers, who joined our Millennium Milepost survey in 2023. They checked no less than 897 mileposts across the UK. Volunteers are an essential support to our work of looking after art on the Network.