MORE money should be claimed to pay for professional cycling trainers to teach all schoolchildren in the county how to be safe on roads, it has been claimed.

Oxfordshire County Council claimed £7,160 from the Department for Transport-accredited Bikeability scheme in 2015/16 – just a fraction compared to other counties across the country.

The council said 700 volunteers already take time to teach children cycling skills in a scheme that has run for over 40 years – but Oxford cycling instructor Sam Chappell said more effort should be made to ensure professionals are in place.

Mr Chappell, of the Broken Spoke Co-Op, said: “The national standard of (Bikeability) is the up to date, modern standard and promoted by the Department for Transport. Why is the standard that Oxfordshire has not up to that standard? Why do Oxfordshire children not deserve the national standard, if not a higher standard?

“There’s such a cycling culture in Oxford and Oxfordshire that I think we owe it to them to pass on that. The fact is that Oxfordshire claims the lowest level of Bikeability funding. It’s not fair on the children of Oxfordshire.”

Bikeability is described as being ‘cycling proficiency for the 21st century’, teaching practical skills regardless of riders’ ability at the time.

Oxfordshire council’s award of £7,160 paid for 186 Bikeability places in 2015/16 – but it said its own in-house Oxfordshire Cycle Training Scheme meant 3,000 children could be trained annually.

County council spokesman Paul Smith said the continuation of its scheme was to ensure children would get some sort of guaranteed training, whereas Bikeability funding could vary year on year.

He said: “We have been reluctant abandon our scheme as it encourages community engagement with so many marvellous volunteers and ensures we have resilience.

“As far as we are aware, if we did move entirely to Bikeability scheme, there aren’t enough qualified Bikeability instructors, plus we can’t guarantee the Bikeabilty funding grant from Government.”

The Oxford Mail reported last week that 2,004 cyclists were injured in the city between 2005 and 2016 – with hotspots including Botley Road, Abingdon Road, Woodstock Road and Banbury Road.

The biggest recipient of Bikeability funding, Staffordshire County Council, was awarded £343,155 over 2015/16 and paid for 12,739 courses.

Kath Cochrane, from Cyclox, said: “(The council) could keep its scheme and apply for Bikeability money. The two could run together.”