New faces and the NQE Business Awards
First I would like to introduce Claudia and David who have recently joined the Colchester Travel Plan Club as interns and Gareth who has joined Essex County Council’s Sustainable Business Travel Plan team.
Sadly it is goodbye to Rachelle who is moving on to change management within ECC. Claudia, David and Gareth look forward to working with you.
Back to the NQE awards and a huge thanks to all of our finalists, we hope you all had a good time on Friday. The quality of the projects described was fantastic and it was almost impossible to pick just two winners. After a huge amount of deliberation, congratulations go to Defence Support Group and The Gilberd who won the award.
To celebrate all our finalists’ achievements, below is a brief synopsis of each as well as a write up on the winners.
The Finalists
University of Essex – The partnership with Re-Cycle the charity that sends refurbished bikes to Africa is a fantastic way to re-cycle bikes abandoned by students and in a virtuous circle then sell refurbished bikes back to cash strapped students. The Uni’s efforts to get students on bikes includes a weekly free Dr Bike service, cycle training and heavily subsidised bike security tagging
6th Form College – In a joint peer to peer project with Sustrans, students have produced a range of innovative posters to encourage fellow students to get on a bike. These have been featured in Cyclelife and may get rolled out beyond the 6th form college. Alongside this project the college has introduced a new comprehensive, friendly and attractive travel section on their intranet.
Inntel – As a business operating from a remote location, we were very impressed with Inntel’s commitment to their travel plan, the range of incentives and facilities they have for their staff and their forward thinking green credit scheme, where achievements of credits for example for using green transport are exchanged for vouchers at the end of the year.
CoHoc – Using Bike Week as a means of fundraising while at the same time encouraging people to cycle, was a different approach for getting people back on a bike. CoHoC offered a great range of cycling initiatives including Dr Bike, guided rides, refresher session all contributing to a successful bike week at the hospital.
The Winners
Defence Support Group – Colchester – The level of commitment shown to promoting sustainable travel and particularly cycling was very impressive. Having voluntarily started a travel plan, with no dedicated resources or funding, staff have really embraced cycling as a means for unifying, improving health and building moral amongst staff.
Staff from HR, the shop floor, H&S and management all spoke passionately about how cycling was impacting positively on their organisation.
Pool bikes are used by senior management as well as staff from the shop floor for business and personal trips and lunch time rides with colleagues. A group always take part in theLondontoBrightoncharity bike ride. Covered parking, showers, lockers and drying facilities provide support for cyclists. As a result of their commitment, cycling to work has risen from 7% to an impressive 16% since 2010.
The Gilberd – Cycling has been integrating throughout the school curriculum through the passion and hard work of key staff. Staff have been trained to deliver Bikeability training, mountain and track biking, allowing pupils the opportunity to develop specialist as well as general cycling skills. This means that every single child receives a solid experience on which to continue cycling as they get older. Following the Olympics, another cycling sport has been introduced, pursuit cycling. Their commitment to encouraging cycling stretches beyond the school. Staff work with primary schools in the local area offering cycle training and their cycling workshop, run by staff and students, offers a repair service to the school and wider community.
