West Lothian schools are being urged to sign up for a safe cycling scheme.
Only around a quarter of local schools are taking advantage of the Bikeability Scotland free national cycle training programme.
It is entirely funded by the Scottish Government but only 53 per cent of schools in the country have taken advantage of the offer and the 27 per cent take-up in West Lothian is among the lowest for any local authority.
Working in tandem with local authorities, Cycling Scotland provides a financial support package to deliver Bikeability Scotland level 2 on-road training.
Mrs Black, acting principal teacher at Toronto Primary School in Livingston, said: “It’s been great having the Bikeabilty Scotland team support our delivery of this training for our pupils.
“It was such an easy process and the children have loved it. We would love to offer this each year going forward so all our primary sixes are equipped with the right knowledge and confidence to be safer cyclists.”
Surveys found that 65 per cent of children were more confident cycling after Bikeability training and 82 per cent of parents were more in favour of letting their children cycle as a result.
In the past year more than 43,000 children have received cycling training.
David Collins of Cycling Scotland said: “We provide funding to support delivery of Bikeability Scotland training to all primary children aged 7-11.
“We’ve done all we can to make the process of accessing the free training for instructors and grant funding as easy as possible.
“All materials including pupil’s guides, certificates, badges and information for parents are provided.
“Even bikes can be supplied for the training period.
“It’s really just a case of teachers contacting us to say they’d like to deliver it in their school.”
