A Manchester City Council worker who restores scrapped bikes and gives them to the local community free of charge has reached a new landmark.
Depot controller Oscar Brogden handed over his 3,000th bike this week – to a 10-year-old Gorton youngster.
Oscar, based at the City Council’s Hammerstone Road site in Gorton, takes damaged bikes that have been brought into the depot after their original owners have thrown them away.
With the help of a colleague, he uses his own time to fix the cycles before giving them to members of the community.
Not only do the bikes go to a good cause, but Oscar stops them from ending up in landfill sites.
Oscar has been restoring bikes since the City Council’s Street Cleansing department moved to the site in 1997, when he noticed dozens of bikes coming into the depot were being wasted.
He has since become a local legend, with news of his good work spreading via word of mouth. Although he won a National Award for Innovation in 2005 – after being chosen from 2,000 other candidates – he is more proud of the wall of thank-you letters in his lodge.
Many of these are from children, who Oscar has given bikes to after being contacted by their social workers.
Oscar said: “I started doing this because I couldn’t believe all these bikes were just going to waste. It made a lot of sense to sort them out, and I really enjoy getting letters of thanks from people I’ve helped out.
“It’s a big team effort and without the help of everyone else bringing the bikes into the depot, this wouldn’t happen.”
