ENGINEERING students at Ellesmere Port Specialist School of Performing Arts will be able to get to grips with bicycle maintenance thanks to a donation from the police.
Cheshire Constabulary has donated 10 bikes to the school’s department of engineering, which will be offering pupils aged 14-19 years a diploma in the subject from September.
As part of the course students will carry out bicycle maintenance so teacher Nik Huxley contacted police to see if they could offer any unwanted bikes.
The force was happy to help and donated confiscated, unclaimed, unidentified and abandoned bicycles.
PCSO Jodie O’Reilly said: “It is great to see these bikes going to good use. Some of them were quite old and in need of a bit of maintenance.
“They could have just ended up being thrown away. The fact that these pupils can benefit from this is excellent.”
Nik Huxley, head of the engineering department at the school, said: “This is a really useful project for our students. Our current BTEC engineering students are preparing and repairing the bikes so they can be used by the diploma students next year.
“The fact that we have been able to have these bikes so quickly is a testament to our already excellent relationship with our local PCSO, Jodie.
“Projects like this not only help our pupils’ education but build on good links between our local police officers and pupils.”
