The Lerwick-based Shetland Community Bike Project is a social enterprise and registered charity established in 1999. The project provides supported employment and voluntary placements for those in the community facing barriers to employment. They run a bike shop in the centre of town and are an accredited Volt ebike dealer.
For the community
The project supports people to learn practical bike repair skills working in the shop restoring donated bikes and making them ready for sale. It also provides a bike maintenance and repair service to the general public and bikes for hire.
In 2018, manager Caroline Adamson successfully applied for funding for six ebikes through Energy Saving Trust’s eBike Grant Fund. For those with no prior experience of ebikes, trials are available before committing to buy. Caroline also ensures customers know about Energy Saving Trust’s interest-free eBike Loan in case they are considering purchasing an ebike.
Active outdoors
Caroline herself has benefited from the ebikes which have encouraged her to cycle, improved her health and increased her outdoor activity. The popularity of the ebikes means they will be included in Shetland Community Bike Project’s future services to help more local people to cycle.
The project has ambitions to increase the number of ebikes people can use. They continue to attend events and promote ebike use locally, as well as signposting the valuable support on offer from Home Energy Scotland.
“The ebikes have allowed people who are less active to benefit from cycling and access funding like the eBike Loan. More people are able to access ebikes helped by the available loan funding.”
Caroline Adamson
Interest-free loans for ebikes, including cargo and adapted cycles, are available from Energy Saving Trust. The eBike Loan, funded by Transport Scotland, aims to make cycling as accessible as possible to everyone in Scotland.