HERE at Crewe Nub News we aim to support our community, promoting shops, businesses, charities, clubs and sports groups.

We will be profiling some of these businesses and organisations regularly in a feature called 'Up Close in Crewe'.

We caught up with Annette Cormack who runs the not-for-profit Community Recycle Cycles in Coronation Crescent. As well as repairing and recycling donated bikes the business provides volunteering opportunities and training.

The business has seen repairs and sales soar during the lockdown when it has also helped keep key workers on the road.

How long have you been going for in Crewe and how did you start up?

We originally established the business in January 2012 and I took it over in 2013. In its first year it was very much developed as a youth project. I used to work for an organisation called "The Excellence in Crewe Partnership", a partnership of all the schools, and we had this double unit called the Skill Centre for young people for whom school was no longer appropriate could come. One of the facilities we offered was fixing bikes up.

When we were made redundant at the end of 2010 a colleague approached me and asked if I would be interested in setting it up as a business. Initially, it was set up like that with schools sending young people, they would complete a course and we would do a bit of bike fixing to generate a bit of money.

It ran like that for 12 months, but it didn't work so we had to change focus. I was left with a group of young men who were very supportive working as volunteers and they believed in it and wanted to keep it going, including one young man who postponed a cycle trip around Europe to help run it.

It became a bike shop and we built if up from there and August 2013 we had the opportunity to move in to a double shop unit (at Coronation Crescent), which made a massive difference as we had one side which we could use a retail and one side as a workshop. We've just gone from strength to strength. Our first mechanic went off and got qualified and when he left, we've had two other mechanics who we've sent off to get qualifications.

Dave Williams arrived and he used to run his own bike shop on Nantwich Road. The internet hit sales badly and he was forced to close the doors, but he came and joined us. We've gradually grown the group of volunteers, many have moved on to further education and employment and we have a very good track record of getting people into employment.

Why was it established as a CIC (Community Interest Company) and what is the ethos?

At the time we discussed the best way to go forward, whether to be a registered charity and we just felt that this way gave us a bit more independence to work as a business, but it's very much about being part of the community and providing services for the community.

We provide affordable transport for people who are maybe more restricted incomes, but also provide opportunities for local people to get involved and engaged, a place for them to come.

Our strapline is 'Helping people make positive changes in their lives, one bicycle at a time".

So no matter if you donate a bit, or come in to have your bike to be repaired or buy a bike from us you are not only benefiting from what you are doing, but you are providing a benefit to for all the volunteers and people who work in here – it is a double feelgood situation.

You would imagine that a lot of bike buying and repairs are out of reach of people when you look at the big retailers' prices these days?

The current situation is a great example of this as right at the beginning of the lockdown we had all the lovely weather and suddenly lots of people were saying "wouldn't it be lovely to get out on my bike". Maybe they hadn't ridden a bike for years.

If you came in here you would get a bike that you know that you can feel safe on as it has been serviced, has got a warranty and it's not going to break the bank.

If people are really struggling financially we offer a service where they can pay a deposit and pay the rest off over four weeks, but most people can afford the prices we are asking.

I tell them if they really take to cycling, then by all means go and spend hundreds of pounds on a new bike.

But what is very common is people pay a lot of money for a bike, use it a couple of times and then it ends up in the shed. We'd much rather they came in here.

Did you close in lockdown and how has it affected the business?

We closed right at the beginning and then we started getting requests in to help key workers. The first one was from a nurse at Leighton Hospital who needed her bike to get to work after pulling it out of the shed where it had been for years.

We started back in a small way and I had to look at the younger ones first; a lot of our volunteers weren't able to come because of age and health issues. We then got some funding from Cycling UK to provide free services for key workers and to enable them to carry on working. As things eased a little we were able to bring people back in but we have had to limit the number of people. Not everyone is back and some are still at home.

Have you seen business boom during lockdown?

We've been really, really busy. What we noticed that as a general rule of thumb we sell a lot of men's bikes. But now we have had a lot of women coming in. They quite often haven't got a bike at all or haven't ridden a bike since they were a girl. Suddenly they've had the children at home who want to go on a bike ride, so we've sold an awful lot of bikes to women during the pandemic.

Do we do enough to promote cycling in the community?

One of the issues that does need addressing was that people were taking to cycling during lockdown because the roads were quiet. As the traffic has increased the numbers have dropped back again, so if we are going to have to look how we share our roads better.

Different areas do different things, some are really hot on it. Recently, Cheshire East has been providing cycling training for 11 to 16 year-olds so that is good, but more needs to be done, although a lot of people do cycle in Crewe and it is a good place to be for cycling.

What plans do you have for the future?

Our core business is selling and fixing bikes, recruiting volunteers and so forth. We need to develop our social media profile too. Our volunteers are provided with opportunities for ongoing training and this year we've put three volunteers through a national qualification at a cost of £3,000. We're very much about tackling social isolation,

We're expanding the 'Big Bike Revival' scheme with Cycling UK, where we 'doctor' bikes during 15-minute health checks. This year we're targeting businesses as community events aren't happening. We've done it successfully at Bentley and Leighton previously and we're revisiting both of those as well as going to AO and Sainsbury's.

We've now got a van which has made a massive difference and we can offer a collection and delivery service. We would also like to develop a mobile mechanic scheme.

One of the things we are working on is a bike loan scheme with Active Cheshire to encourage people who may have used public transport to work to cycle instead. They can come in and rent a bike off us plus helmet, lights and lock for £5 a week.

At the moment there is a shortage of bikes coming into the country, so we're looking to get it up and running using some of the bikes we have. But in the future ideally we want a sort of mini 'Boris Bike' system where we have eight identical bikes that to rent.

You had some excellent news about one of your volunteers recently.

Benji (Woods) has been coming in herefor a couple of years. We work closely with Cheshire East's supported employment scheme and they put on an event to celebrate and encourage other employers to hire someone with a disability. His name was put forward and he recently received the 'Achiever of the Year'.

Benji is very much part of the team, he loves repairing the bikes and he gets on so well with everybody.

Community Recycle Cycles is open Tuesdays to Saturdays (10am to 4pm) at 7-9 Coronation Crescent in Crewe.

Contact them on 01270 583019 and go to their website.