A SCHEME to teach vital road safety skills to Bradford's young cyclists is set to expand this summer with a new initiative for out-of-school lessons hot on the heels of the Tour de Yorkshire.

Until now Bradford Council's primary means of teaching bike safety to children has been through two-day sessions run in school playgrounds during term time.

When Baildon ward councillor Debbie Davies (Con) inquired into holiday-time cycling lessons for her sons, she was initially told the local authority only occasionally provided the nationally-run Bikeability service to established youth groups such as the Scouts.

"However I was then told that if I could get a confirmed group of at least ten children, then it would be possible," Councillor Davies said.

"The thing is not every child can get training through schools and this seemed like an avenue to get them the skills they need to have fun and be safe on our roads.

"Also I do believe that school should be for academic work and teachers and children already have enough to do with that.

"Ten children from at least four different local schools committed to take part in my suggestion within 24 hours."

Council Bikeabilty Co-ordinator Aubrey Cooper said the current training programme may be expanded.

"We are soon making some changes to the way we do things," Mr Cooper said.

"Currently, we run two types of free schemes with the primary one being Bikeability, which is delivered by paid professionals. Then we have cycle training, which is done by teachers and volunteers at schools.

"That's the bread and butter stuff and both things are run in schools."

Mr Cooper said Scout groups were traditionally provided with Bikeability courses on request, but that due to a numbers limit of 1,900 places funded by central government, it was difficult to go beyond that and commit to individual parents' requests.

"We would normally be nervous about that because we need to be sure that enough children will turn up on the day or it can be a waste of time and money.

"In this case we know we have something being organised by an efficient local councillor.

"It's quite a cautious balancing act because the number of free places is limited," Mr Cooper said.

"Having said that however, we are going to be running a lot of cycling activities these summer holidays which will also include some actual training."

Mr Cooper said details of the new schemes would be released later and said that safe cycling could now take place on the Canal Road Greenway.

"Once you are on it you can ride from Shipley to Stanley Road without having to go on the street," he said.