A local cycling service in Southend has been able to expand its facilities having been supported by Sported to source nearly £40,000 in funding and create a dedicated bike maintenance facility.

Just Ride Southend was set up in 2014 as an inclusive, safe cycling project and has seen massive growth from 12,000 participants in 2022 to over 18,000 in 2024.

“The idea is simple, a safe environment for anybody, whatever age, whatever ability to come and access a bike and ride,” says administrator and operator Alan Cook.

“We’ve got 150+ bikes in the fleet now. We’ve got balance bikes, we’ve got small trikes, we’ve got small bikes with stabilisers for children, a whole range of sizes in two-wheelers for adults, and family options such as tagalongs, buggies, go cart with side car, then specialist bikes, trikes, tandems, tandem trikes, side-by-sides, wheelchair platforms.

“I’m pretty safe I’m sure in saying we’ve never yet failed to get somebody riding or being ridden around in 10 years.”

Despite the success and impact the team at Just Ride Southend had been having, they needed additional support to sustain themselves and help them grow, which is when they turned to Sported.

Sported is the UK’s largest grassroots sport charity and supports a network of around 5,000 clubs, groups and organisations who are impacting their communities through sport and physical activity.

“The reality was, we knew as a small local charity with no national organisation backing us, that we needed outside help to check against our policies, to help us with bigger funding projects, and draw down resources that me, as an administrator working only three days a week, could not manage and do on my own,” Cook continues.

“There was some recognition from the trustees and me that we really needed a dedicated bike maintenance workshop on the site and ideally another storage container to allow us to store the bikes better.

“So I came to Sported and said, this is big challenge for me as a part-time administrator trying to manage running a very busy project, doing all the volunteer organising and support and general fundraising and then on top of it trying to explore, find costings for fundings and search out funders to make something like this reality.

“Rob [Regional Manager for Sported in the East of England] basically said, we can partner you up. We’ve got somebody that’s got some experience in working in the funding area and that’s how they put me in touch with Gary.”

Sported’s Volunteer Consultants like Gary cover a range of areas of expertise that help the Sported network with bid writing, governance, marketing, and a whole host of other areas that volunteer-led organisations can find challenging due to time constraints.

“Ultimately we knew that we were going to be looking between £40-50,000 to get the infrastructure on site,” Cook adds when discussing the work required.

“Gary worked with me over a quite an intensive period while we started to develop what this application form was going to look like. So there is this constant work, backwards and forwards, refining, supporting and encouraging from Gary and Sported.

“We received an offer for the full amount that we had applied for, just short of £40,000.”

The new container and maintenance area was opened in March 2025 in a special ceremony attended by members of Just Ride Southend, Sported’s Regional Manager for the East of England, Rob Danson, and the mayor and mayoress of Southend.

“Hand holding, does not give it the true value or weight behind what it meant to our small charity to get this support and funding secured,” Cook concludes. “Knowing that Gary and Sported had other resources that could be pulled in to support us, that was a great reassurance to me.

“It just gives that absolute peace of mind that I wasn’t doing this on my own, that I had someone to turn to with questions and had this amazing resource behind us, we can’t thank Sported enough for without them I’m not sure I could have made this happen.”

Just Ride Southend operate from 10am-12 noon on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday at Southend Leisure and Tennis Centre, with the drop-in sessions providing a safe, traffic-free cycling experience.

Take part with Just Ride Southend and their sessions on their website: www.justridesouthend.com.