Modelled on a successful Dunedin project, the Waitaki Community Bike Project includes representatives from a wide range of organisations wanting to be involved in restoring bikes in a project to benefit everybody.
''Local children get to learn bike safety skills and to own a bike they may not have been able to afford. Most importantly, we get to contribute to promoting healthy lifestyles to local children in a very real way,'' Waitaki Resource Recovery Trust manager Marian Shore said yesterday.
The bikes, which will either be donated to the project or recovered from the Waitaki Resource Park, will be refurbished by community volunteers and local offenders on community sentences.
''This is a great project to engage local offenders,'' Corrections Oamaru service manager Jo Reid said.
The bike project was a way for offenders on community work sentences to give back to their local community while learning useful and potentially employable skills.
Knowing how to fix a bike was a skill people could use at home or for employment.
They also had the opportunity to gain NCEA credits in communication skills and problem-solving, Literacy North Otago officer Helen Jensen said.
The project will be eventually be run out of the Menz shed, which operates from the resource recovery park and plans to increase its working space to accommodate the project.
It is planned to run a regular bike maintenance programme at the park where people can buy and fit parts to keep their bikes safe to rideThose wishing to give bikes can leave them at the park in Chelmer St.
The project group is also investigating funding for bike parts, helmets and to fund premises for the project.
Once restored, bikes will be donated to needy individuals or become part of a ''bike library''.
