Recycle, Ride, Revive – Pedalling for a Greener Future for the Moorlands
Biddulph Town Council is working in partnership with Biddulph Library, Biddulph Youth and Community Zone, Moorlands Climate Action, Outside Arts, Staffordshire County Council, Staffordshire Police, Social Connective, and Support Staffordshire to develop and deliver a ‘Chain Reaction Project’, promoting cycling across the Staffordshire Moorlands.
The project aims to:
Gift unused bikes from local Recycling Centres to families that need them, reducing waste.
Encourage more involvement with arts and creative projects.
Encourage more people to learn about bike repair so they can maintain their own bikes – a ‘Fix and Ride’ initiative.
Improve health outcomes by promoting cycling routes across the Staffordshire Moorlands. Cycling can support both mental and physical health benefits, helping to reduce stress and fight depression, as well as helping to prevent long-term health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.
Promote sustainable travel options. Cycling is an environmentally friending mode of transport.
Encourage investment in infrastructure, whether this be new or improved routes or the installation of bike repair stations and racks.
Work with partners to tackle anti-social behaviour by providing supervised activities.
Develop a Moorlands-wide forum that can share experiences and ideas, ensuring co-ordinated cycling activities continue beyond the period of the project.
9 April 2025 – Pathways To The Future – 4 Day Cycling Challenge Launch
Biddulph’s Town Mayor, Councillor Nigel Yates, started the project on the 9 April 2025, from the Life Stream Church car park in Biddulph, with the launch of his ‘Pathways to the Future’ charity bike ride. A four day challenge to promote sustainable travel exploring our country’s waterways.
Children from Knypersley First School and Kingsfield First School waved off the group, consisting of Councillor Nigel Yates, Tony Birchall, Ken Chaddock, Dave Lewis and Councillor Wayne Rogers.
The children were also delighted to see ‘Boomer’ from Port Vale Football Club.
Biddulph Yarnbarms decorated cycles and placed them around the town and also produced a topper for the post box outside the Town Hall.
The cycling team travelled from Biddulph to Regents Park in London using canal towpaths, with very minimal use of roads.
Here’s a few photos:
12 April 2025 – Chain Reaction Project Launch
On Saturday 12 April 2025 the ‘Chain Reaction Project’ was launched outside Biddulph Library.
Outside Arts hosted 3 x 30 minute performances of ‘Bicycle Ballet’ by Strictly Cycling. ‘Bicycle Ballet’ was an improvisational, visual performance and ‘cycle-about’ choreography inspired by flash mobs, dada-ism, every day cycling experiences and the great British weather. Performers in bright yellow cycled or wheeled their bikes. They created human/bike sculptures; parked their bikes in the hands of passers-by and battled in slow-motion races, celebrating cycling, life and yellowness!
Bikes were repaired, checked and marked with support from Moorlands Climate Action and the Repair Cafe.
Here’s some photos:
Biddulph Yarnbarms – Where’s the Third Yarn Bombed Bicycle?
To highlight the Chain Reaction Project two of the yarn bombed bicycles are in their new homes for the next 12 months.
The third bike will appear in a new location each week, moving around the whole of the town.
5 July 2025 – Chain Reaction Project – Cheadle
Collaborating with a local women’s refuge, volunteers from Moorlands Climate Action (MCA), the County Council’s Waste Minimisation Project, and Cheadle Town Council, organised a basic bike maintenance and repair session at Tean Road Recreation Ground on Saturday 5 July 2025.
In total 7 children and young people from the refuge received a bike of their own, together with helmets and lights, all for free.
Here’s some photos:
11 October 2025 – Chain Reaction Project – Pre-loved Bike Sale Biddulph
We were proud to host a pre-loved bike sale, finding new homes for bikes that had been sent to the Staffordshire Recycling Centre, in partnership with The Biddulph Youth and Community Zone, Waste Savvy Staffordshire, the Staffordshire Libraries team and Moorlands Climate Action.
In total 79 bikes found new homes and £470 was raised, which will be reinvested supporting more cycling projects in Biddulph.
Here’s some photos:
26 October 2025 – Chain Reaction Project – Cheadle
The Cheadle ‘Chain Reaction’ team held a ‘Bike Repair Cafe’ on Sunday 26 October. Working with Cheadle Town Council, Moorlands Climate Action checked bikes provided by the Waste Savvy team to ensure they were safe and Staffordshire Police marked the bikes.
Here’s some photos:
7 November 2025 – Chain Reaction Project – ‘Ride The Lights’ – Evening Family Bike Ride
We worked with partners to hold the first ‘Ride The Lights’ event, starting at Life Stream Church Car Park and riding to Smokies Way, lighting up The Biddulph Valley Way with a magical bike ride.
The event has received some fantastic feedback:
‘Absolutely brilliant achievement. Very well done.’
‘Thank you for such a great event. Well done to all involved.’
‘Amazing event looking forward to the next one.’
‘It was great to see how many in the community showed up for this event. It was brilliant and it sounded like all the children had a great time.’
‘We watched everyone from the tin bridge pathway. It was lovely to see so many families out enjoying themselves. The bikes looked lovely all lit up.’
‘This was a great turn out, great event run by some amazing people, so many happy faces.’
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