A Cambridge charity has benefited from a delivery of abandoned bicycles thanks to a partnership between University of Cambridge, and Mears, also known as Portal.

Staff from Portal worked together to give Impington-based charity, Camtrust, 21 bikes which will be ‘upcycled’ and sold on or used for parts.

The bikes were collected from bike stores around the Eddington campus, which provides affordable rent apartments for university staff. The site often hosts academics from overseas who choose to leave their bikes when they return home. The bikes were initially put into storage to await collection and when nobody came forward to collect them, the idea for the project came about.

Camtrust specialises in providing life and work skills for adults with learning disabilities. They offer a wide range of programmes and activities teaching skills for independent living and one area of work is teaching the clients to repair and maintain bicycles.

The bikes were delivered to Camtrust by the Mears team and will be transformed by the charity’s service users over the coming weeks. The charity then sells the bikes on its forecourt in Cambridge Road, Impington, which is a good example of recycling and re-use, as well as providing the wider community with the chance to own an economically priced bike.

Jamie LeRoy, Soft Services Manager at Mears, said;

“We’re pleased to have been able to partner with the university on the project to give the left bicycles a new lease of life and support a brilliant local charity at the same time.”

Lilly Mungovan, Centre Manager at Camtrust, said;

“We’re very grateful to receive these kind donations. Our bicycle refurbishment project relies on donations of unwanted bicycles which are either used for parts or repaired and sold to the local community - generating much needed income for the charity.

We’re genuinely overwhelmed and delighted each time someone supports us, no matter how large or small a donation or gesture is. It makes a big difference and helps us to continue the important work we do”.