Galway Councillors offered free course – in cycling!

They say once you’ve learned the skill of riding a bike you never forget . . . but Galway city’s politicians are being offered a refresher course in cycling!

Galway’s 18 city councillors have been offered a free place on a “cycle skills course”, which is offered jointly by the City Council and An Taisce.

The pilot course, ‘Get in Gear – Cycling in Cities’, is funded by the National Transport Authority and aims to train 150 employees in several city companies including NUI Galway, Hewlett Packard and German technology giant, SAP.

The course takes two hours and city councillors will learn: “changing gears, road positioning, signalling, how to cross junctions and roundabouts, what to wear and how to get to work stress free on a bike”.

An Taisce said that with the city’s free bike scheme set to come on stream this November the training course is an “ideal opportunity” for city councillors “to get back cycling and set a great example to the people of Galway”.The course “will be both on road and off road” and there will be five trainees per facilitator.

“It is tailored to those who would like to cycle to work or council meetings but would need more confidence,” An Taisce said.It added: “The facilitators are qualified cycle trainers with years of experience and will give the training in a relaxed and fun manner; stress free cycling as it should be.”

Read more in this week’s Connacht Sentinel