Bikes that would have been “destined for landfill” have been refurbished as part of a recycling scheme that donates them to refugees and asylum seekers in Barnsley.

The Barnsley Refugee Bike Project began two years ago, after Alex Simon, the founder, attended the Penistone refugee and asylum seeker support group and donated a bike after someone had requested one for one of the refugees.

Others donated their spare bikes, so Alex, who has been involved with cycling since he was young, used his skills and initiated bike refurbishments from his own garage.

Earlier this year the scheme was awarded a £20,000 grant from the National Lottery which has gone towards a new workshop which was officially opened by Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council and Ed Clancy, an Olympic Gold Medalist and South Yorkshire’s Active Travel Commissioner.

The core of this project is to help refugees and asylum seekers.

Alex said: “Refugees are on a very limited budget. A £2 bus journey is £2 worth of food they could’ve bought. Having a bike enables them to save money.”

“We organise monthly bike rides with the group which is good for community cohesion and excellent for picking up language skills and cultural understanding,” he added.

The group has regular Sunday morning bike rides along the Trans Pennine trail which allows members to discover new routes across Barnsley, Sheffield and other areas of South Yorkshire.

Barnsley Borough City of Sanctuary, which works towards making Barnsley a safe place for those fleeing war and persecution, support this scheme and said: “The project is a great one to help refugees to get out and about and explore the area without cost.

“It has brought people together from different communities in Barnsley – from donors, people volunteering to renovate bikes and for those who have been given them.”

The main source of bikes has been through HW Martin, who run recycling centres across Barnsley, and have given the team access to discarded bikes left in the centre.

The team have also received donations from the local community. Alex said: “The people around Barnsley, South Yorkshire have been nothing more than generous with the bike recycling scheme.”

Over 450 bikes have been donated so far, and there are around 20 volunteers who are regularly involved.

Every bike donated is fully renovated and comes with a helmet, a hi-vis jacket, a lock, a satellite and a small toolkit.

The idea of the group was to, “get the refugees involved and take an active role in renovating bikes for themselves and other people, upscale the number of bikes we are getting out, and to have monthly social bike rides,” said Alex.

“All the goals that we set have been achieved in this short time that we’ve had together.”

Looking to the future, Alex hopes to get more volunteers involved so the workshops can run three to four days a week.

If you have any bikes that you would like to donate, contact penistonebikedonations@outlook.com