Maidenhead & Windsor

Wear your cycle helmet with pride – and get a headstart in the "cool and groovy" stakes.

That's the design challenge to young Maidenhead Royal Borough cyclists as the borough once again gears up to celebrate National Bike Week next week (June 19 – 23).

Maidenhead Road safety officers have thrown down the design gauntlet to young cyclists following statistics which show that nearly half of injuries suffered by teenage and young adult cyclists were to the head and face – many of whom were not wearing a helmet because it was "uncool"!

Budding young Maidenhead artistic cyclists are now invited to "saddle up" and take up the design challenge to win one of 20 cycle helmets by taking part in a colouring competition to find the grooviest design.

To kick-start the competition, several schools have invited the borough's road safety officer to demonstrate the importance of wearing cycle helmets in a helmet safety "eggsperiment" – with messy but fun results! Sessions take place on:
· Monday June 19, St Mary's Primary School (3.10pm)
· Tuesday June 20, Furze Platt Infants School (all morning)
· Wednesday June 21, Ellington Primary School (all morning)
· Thursday June 22, St Edward's Middle School (school assembly at 8.50am).

This year's Maidenhead competition follows the success of last year's Helmet Watch initiative in which road safety officers presented on-the-spot prizes of compass keyrings to any child spotted wearing a cycle helmet while out on their bikes.

Cllr Antony Wood, lead member for Maidenhead road safety, said: "The Department of Transport statistics paint a very worrying picture of young cyclists putting themselves in danger of serious injury by not wearing a cycle helmet.

"We all appreciate that appearance matters a great deal when you're young – but the message we need to get across is that safety matters even more! If we can combine the two with some really 'cool' designs then we are heading in the right direction! So get designing – and help to make helmet-wearing groovy!"

Young Maidenhead cyclists will also be taking to the roads and going through their road safety paces in the coming weeks as the annual cycle training season gets into top gear. Nearly 500 pupils from 23 schools have signed up to take part in the scheme which helps pupils develop their road awareness and co-ordination as well as practise key road safety skills.

Training takes place during Bike Week at the following schools:
Monday June 19 - St Mary's Primary School, Maidenhead (3.15 – 4.15om)
Tuesday June 20 - Holyport Primary School (1 – 3pm)
Wednesday June 21 - Waltham St Lawrence Primary School (3 – 4pm)
Thursday June 22 - Cookham Dean Primary School (1.30 – 3pm)
Friday June 23, White Waltham Primary School (12.30 – 1.30pm); Oldfield Primary School (2 – 3pm)
Saturday June 24 - St Edmund Campion Primary School (10.30 – 11.30am).

Entry forms for the colouring competition are available from the Maidenhead road safety officer on 01628 796577. The closing date for entries is July 7. Helmets will be awarded to the 20 best entries at school assemblies at the end of the summer term.
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead,