Darlovelo Takes Off

Darlington’s very own bike hire scheme was formally launched on 25 August at the Darlington Festival of Cycling in South Park. Compared to London’s estimated £25m annual budget, Darlovelo’s £40k is modest indeed. The scheme is benefitting from a £35k grant from Bike Hub, the bicycle industry’s “New Ideas” fund. There will also be “in kind” contributions from Darlington Borough Council, though no cash.

Darlovelo is inheriting the bikes that featured in the Beauty and the Bike project, and will be based at Darlington Media Group’s workshop, behind Darlington Arts Centre. Three of the young women who starred in our film have now bought their bikes, but another eight bikes are still being hired out by Darlington Media Group. Six further bikes are being donated to the scheme by Darlington Borough Council. With 18 new bikes purchased, the Darlovelo scheme now has 32 bikes available for hire.

If the scheme goes well, there are plans to expand over the next two years, with two further bases and up to 100 bikes.

Velodarlo is dead. Long live DarLOVElo!!!

Darlington Cycling Campaign has been awarded one of just three New Ideas Fund grants to build on the work of the Beauty and the Bike project. The Campaign’s submission is for a bike pool of the kind of dutch-style bikes that are proving so popular amongst young women who want to cycle.

With funding for between 60 and 100 bikes, and support staff to promote the bike pool in workplaces, colleges and schools, the aim is to kick-start a cycling culture in the town that is more attractive to women in particular

Bike Hub’s New Ideas Fund is financed by British bicycle retailers through a levy on all bicycle sales. The scheme received applications from national as well as local organisations. Darlington Cycling Campaign’s proposals explained how the Beauty and the Bike project found that peer group culture is an important barrier to young women cycling. But where small groups got together to start using stylish bikes, the barriers begin to crumble.

The new funding means that Beauty and the Bike’s existing bike pool, Velodarlo, which has been set up informally to support the Darlington Media Group documentary project, will be replaced by a fully constituted Association, DarLOVElo. The Media Group have already agreed in principle to hand over all the Velodarlo bikes to the new body, which will be run by the young women themselves with support from a Board of Trustees.

The Campaign will launch DarLOVElo at the UK premiere screening of the film Beauty and the Bike, and launch of the book and exhibition of the same name, at Darlington Arts Centre on Wednesday 9th December.