Cycling Instructors | Sunderland Young People's Bike Project

About Us

Mission Statement

Sunderland Young People’s Bike Project aims to get as many people as possible to enjoy and achieve through a broad range of educational and leisure-based cycling opportunities that are affordable and available to all. Our organisation seeks to enhance opportunities for everyone to fulfil their potential as individuals.

OUR SERVICES

ACTIVITIES & RIDES

Aims and Objectives

To provide outdoor leisure activities that are accessible and affordable to all to provide a caring and supportive environment.

Provide a range of diverse services and activities for all members of the community.

To ensure that the opportunities offered by the project continue to meet the needs of the community and are accessible to all.

To expand existing provision by developing a programme of creative and diversionary activities that will engage young people and community members during evenings, weekends, and holidays periods.

To involve other agencies in the development of the cycling provision we provide for people.

To establish and deliver a range of accredited and non-accredited training and personal development opportunities for the community, young people, staff and volunteers.

To promote the benefits of cycling which can help with, mental health, social exclusion, personal safety, healthy and well being, become more active, in addition to raising awareness of the environment and to help reduce the carbon footprint.

To encourage participants to become involved in the planning and delivery of services by welcoming volunteers, and providing appropriate training and support.

To support those who are not in education, training, or employment by developing opportunities that will address their lack of confidence, low self-esteem and key skills.

Promote cycling and cycle related activities as an environmental friendly and safe mode of transport.

Our History

Sunderland Young Peoples Bike Project was originally named "North Side Young People’s Bike Project" and was set up in April 2002 when Area Coordinators; Casandra O’Neil, Tony Semley, and Steve Rylance tabled a cycling club proposal to Sunderland's Youth Service.

The proposal was to set up an exciting new cycling initiative, initially for young people in the North of Sunderland. The project started with 12 ageing, but useable mountain bikes left by a past project and an inherited trailer to carry 12 bikes. And with that - a cycle project was born!

Some funding was secured to kick start the project with a number of cycling activities and challenges such as the C2C and the W2W. The project grew from strenght to strength and became popular with young people in the community. As such more partnerships were forged and more funding came in to expand the projects service across the City, not just the North.

As the project continued to developed and become popular, in 2009 it was decided to transition the project intoan independent Community Interest Company.

The project decided then to change its name to become "Sunderland Young Peoples Bike Project" (SYPBP) to be inclusive of everyone in the City, not just the North.

This name was chosen by a committee of young people from Blue Watch Youth Centre, where the project was initially based.
Becoming Established

On 31st March 2009, Sunderland Young People’s Bike Project became its own company and registered as a CIC (06864603).

From this date SYPBP has worked with a number of Local Authorities, funders and organisations to deliver many cycling programmes and training.

On the 16th December 2009, SYPBP was successful becoming a Bikeability training provider (Registration Number 704209A) and at the time became the sole provider of the newly formed Bikeability. We later assisted Sunderland Council to achieve the same accreditation and have worked in partnership ever since to deliver Bikeability across Sunderland.

SYPBP is passionate about cycling and we see Bikeability as the cornerstone to our engagement with young people and our aspirations to create a cycling culture across the whole community.
Finding Our Home

In 2005 Sunderland Young people’s Bike Project found a permanent home with Blue Watch Youth Centre (Ryhope). Where the innovative project offered an assortment of challenging outdoor activities and new experiences for young people aged primarily 8-21 years old. Benefiting from a fully resourced permanent base, the project supported young people with their participation in the Mayor’s and Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards, Key Fund, Safe Cycle Assessments, AQA Units in Mountain Biking and Young Achiever Awards.

In July 2017 Sunderland Young people’s Bike Project became independent from Blue Watch Youth Centre in Ryhope and found it own headquarters and storage units in Thompson Park. Our Head office is located in the Café within the Park, 179 Newcastle road. We have a workshop and fleet storage units based within Home Grown Garden Centre, situated in the middle of Thompson Park.

In April 2022 in partnership with sunderland Council and British Cycling, we had a bespoke cycle skills area built in the park where we are able to provide cycle sessions and host events.

Team Members

Anthony Semley

Anthony (Tony) is Head of Service, IQA & Safeguarding Lead at SYPBP.

He has been a nationally qualified bikeability instructor since 2009 and recently completed his conversion RPL course in 2023. He has experience of delivering Bikeability's Plus & core modules, learn to ride classes, cycle skill games & cycle confidence courses to both children and adults, he also has a City & Guilds Level 2 qualification in cycle mechanics.

He is a qualified senior Youth manager with over 20 years experience managing youth projects and cycling programmes.

Liam Semley

Liam is the company director, IQA & Safeguarding lead at SYPBP. He is a nationally qualified cycle lead, bikeability instructor, and has a City & Guilds Level 2 qualification in cycle mechanics. He is a qualified Youth worker with a number of years experience managing youth projects and cycling programmes.

Ross McLagan

Ross is a national qualified cycle lead and bikeability Instructor.

He is an experienced cyclist who is passionate about encouraging the next generation to get more active.

He has experience of delivering Bikeability's Plus & core modules, learn to ride, Cycle Skill Games & Cycle Confidence courses to both children and adults.

Marcus Watson

Marcus is one of our senior instructors who passed the National Standards Instructor Course in 2013 and has been delivering Bikeability ever since, he recently completed his conversion RPL course in 2023.

He has experience of delivering Bikeability's Plus & core modules, learn to ride, Cycle Skill Games & Cycle Confidence courses to both children and adults.

Josh Dunn

Josh is a national qualified bikeability Instructor and cycle mechanic. He is an experienced cyclist who is passionate about encouraging the next generation to get more active.

He has experience of delivering Bikeability's Plus & core modules, learn to ride, Cycle Skill Games & Cycle Confidence courses to both children and adults.

Colin Charlton

Colin is a Volunteer to the project, a Senior Bike Leader and Bikeability instructor and was instrumental in the project achieving Bikeability registration in 2009. He is a keen mountain biker with over 20 years’ experience of leading groups both on and off road, he is also a qualified cycle mechanic