What happens to bikes left to rot in the
racks?
11 June 2015
Continuing the blog is PC Carl Palmer at our new police
station in Stevenage, Hertfordshire.
Do you use your bike to get to your station? Do you make
sure it's secure when you leave it in the racks? Join in the
discussion in the comments below.
A lot of us leave our bikes at the station on
our way to work, but believe it or not some bikes are left there
for much longer than just one day. 
We’re responsible for policing Govia
Thameslink, running from Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire all the way
through London down in to Brighton. The cycle racks at some of the
stations across the network had become graveyard of bikes – some of
them hadn’t been touched by their owners for months. It can be a
big problem for passengers who use the racks daily and have trouble
finding a decent spot to secure their bike.
Eventually, after a good deal of warning
given, we removed the bikes that had long been left to rust by
their owners and put in to storage nearby.
Now, there’s a chance some of these bikes may
have been stolen in the area, so I worked with fellow officer PC
Faith Woodstock took on the painstaking task of recording,
photographing and cross-referencing each bike against our crime
database. A lot of them didn’t return any results. So who
would benefit from the bikes left over?
The answer came in the form of a local charity
in Stevenage which helps disadvantaged children with life skills.
With the help of Hertfordshire PCSO Ron Treadwell, Govia Thameslink
and Hertfordshire Constabulary more than 80 bikes were donated to
The Wheels
Project.
Kevin Jones of The Wheels Project thanked us
for the donation; he told us the bikes will go a long way to help
establish a new project and get children in the area develop their
cycling skills.
Remember to look after your bike properly if you're leaving it
at a station; use a good, strong lock and get
it security marked.
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