Our History
Helping people make positive changes in their lives, one bicycle at a time.
It has been said that some of the best ideas develop out of adversity and so it has been for Community Recycle Cycles. The company was originally formed following redundancy and the desire to never again be dependent upon others who do not understand the impact and value of the work being done. And so it was that in January 2012, Community Recycle Cycles was registered with Companies House to start life continuing one aspect of the work carried out with local young people.
However a second blow was struck just over 12 months later when one of the original directors responsible for the day to day running of the project stood down.
What to do next? The obvious option would have been to close the doors and mark it all up to experience, but as those who knew Annette will recognise the easy route is not always the way forward. So with the support of a loyal group of young men who recognised the unique value and possibilities of the project, Annette set out to re-build the business changing the focus from being a youth project to becoming a fully-fledged bicycle recycling one.
Matthew Davidson, one of the aforementioned group offered to postpone his trip cycling around Europe to become the lead mechanic. He was the first of our mechanics to complete the Cy Tech L2 training and after working hard for 2 years to set up the new business to be a successful venture, he was able to take up a place at Brighton University to study illustration. Examples of his work are the logo and the black and white drawing of the shop on the website.
Over the next 6 years we have given 5 other people the opportunity to complete the Cy Tech L2 training, helping the business to move on professionally to where we are today. We have also supported volunteers to become trained ride leaders, learn more about business and the law and most recently a number of the team completed initial mental health awareness training.
Community Recycle Cycles is a business run by and for our local community and in 2017we were delighted to welcome someone who had been a very key part of many cyclists lives in Crewe. Sadly J.E. Williams & Son bike shop has closed but we were pleased to offer a place to Dave Williams who brought many years of experience to help us develop further.
Over the years we have worked with about 100 volunteers, many moving on to work or further education. Currently we have 28 volunteers registered with us aged from 14 to 80years old. We have 3 adults with complex learning needs, some volunteers who have mental health problems and others who have physical disabilities. We pride ourselves on providing an inclusive, supportive environment helping people to develop new skills, growing confidence and make new friends whilst making a valuable contribution to the community
When you use the services of Community Recycle Cycles, to buy a bike or to get one repaired you are helping us continue our work. We thank you for that and hope to see you soon.
