A bike enthusiast says he has everything he needs to launch a free cycling club for kids, but his dyslexia is holding the project up.<\/p>\n
Tony Byrne has been gifted a 20-hectare piece of woodland by the parish council in Borough Green to launch the venture.<\/p>\n
Tony Byrne has land, funding and support but can’t move forward without help to fill in the paperwork<\/p>\n
Although he has the land, funding and community support, because of his condition – which affects reading, writing and spelling – he is unable to fill in the paperwork to register the club as a community interest company (CIC).<\/p>\n
Due to his learning difficulty, he rang Kent County Council, Tonbridge and Malling council and three dyslexia charities to ask if they offer paperwork assistance for those with his condition.<\/p>\n
Thus far, he says the answer has been a resounding \u2018no\u2019.<\/p>\n
The 50-year-old said: \u201cI have done the hard work; I am just asking for them to help me with the paperwork.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told them what I was doing, and I need help with reading and writing to get it to the next level because I can\u2019t move any further.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of the teenagers who will benefit from the project in Borough Green. From left: Ben Potter, Jakub Lockyer, Joe Francis, Oliver Clarke<\/p>\n
In response, the builder says the councils said they do not have the \u201cexpertise\u201d to assist, while the charities said it isn\u2019t a service they offer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s extremely frustrating for me. Most days I would spend time on the phone trying to sort it out with people.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome have gone on to ask me to put what I\u2019ve said over the phone into an email, which I can\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response, Tonbridge and Malling council (TMBC) told KentOnline it has \u201cevery sympathy\u201d with Tony but said \u201cwe are not the right organisation to help him set up his community interest company\u201d.<\/p>\n
It suggests he get in touch with the regulator for CICs at Companies House for advice.<\/p>\n
Part of the bike trail which is flat will be used for children in Borough Green and surrounding areas<\/p>\n
The CIC regulator explained that it doesn\u2019t offer a service where it could complete forms on behalf of customers but said it would work with the customer \u201cas much as possible\u201d to provide help and guidance.<\/p>\n
The dad-of-two says his bike club idea came from realising that not all schools teach cycling proficiency anymore and as a result, not every child can ride a bike.<\/p>\n
In addition, those who do ride don\u2019t always have good spaces to enjoy cycling safely.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThe club is for young children who can\u2019t ride bikes, all the way up to adults.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is such a good thing for everybody in the local community. I want kids to be riding here in 20 years\u2019 time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mike Taylor says Borough Green parish council were unanimous in their support for the club<\/p>\n
Parish council chairman Mike Taylor says Tony\u2019s idea for the large tract of wild woodland fitted well with \u201centerprising youngsters\u201d who had already built some jumps and tracks on the site and kept the place \u201cclean and tidy\u201d.<\/p>\n
He explained he and colleagues were \u201cunanimous\u201d in their support for a joint project and are providing a small amount of funding to get it off the ground.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThis will give young people fresh air and exercise, and the opportunity to work together as a team to build the track they want.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany villages have a problem with some young bikers, doing wheelies down the middle of the road and the like. We are not accusing these particular youngsters of that, but if there is somewhere young people can let off steam it has to be good for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mike explained the club will have a licence from the parish council to use specific areas of the land, a first aid kit will be installed and a system will be in place to clear up and dispose of litter.<\/p>\n
Some of the jumps used by older children in the former quarry in Borough Green<\/p>\n
But despite this, although Tony has spent hours clearing the land to make way for the club, without help filling the paperwork and social media support to market the club, he\u2019s stuck.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI have land, licence and insurance but I just need help with the paperwork.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tony has memories of his dyslexia from an early age and recalls times the teacher would wipe the words off the whiteboard before he had finished reading because all the other children were ahead.<\/p>\n
As a result, he left school two years before he was meant to because he says \u201cthe support wasn\u2019t available for dyslexia back then\u201d.<\/p>\n
If you would like to help Tony, please call reporter Elli Hodgson on 01634 227800.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bike enthusiast says he has everything he needs to launch a free cycling club for kids, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,105,609,56205,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-374274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-human-interest","11":"tag-malling","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115093706484901150","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}