June 5-11 is Bike Week, and it?s the 100^th annual celebration of the bike! Home to an impressive cycling heritage, today Nottingham is blazing a new trail in biking brilliance.

This Bike Week, we?re celebrating the way that Nottingham City Council, together with partners, is making Nottingham a better and safer city to get around for all types of cyclists.?

Did you know?

• Riding a bike to work or for everyday errands boosts productivity and happiness and cuts congestion, emissions and the cost of travel?
• Cycling contributes to a growing economy through increased spending on high streets ? those on foot or bike spend around 40% than motorists - as well as reduced pressure on the NHS and better access to jobs?

• You can even get rewarded for joining the growing numbers cycling to work or the shops! Nottingham City Council has joined up with eight Nottinghamshire Councils to help residents reduce their carbon footprints through the Notts Green Rewards programme. After signing up, you can win prizes for taking sustainable actions, like riding your bike!

Here are a couple of upcoming bike events if you fancy taking part:

• Kidical Mass family bike ride from Victoria Embankment ? Sunday 18 June
• Ridewise Pedal Party at Harvey Hadden ? Sunday 25 June with FREE bike and helmet hire for those who need it.

Nottingham continues to build a network of safe segregated cycle lanes enabling more and more residents to take advantage of the most clean, sustainable and affordable method of travel.?This is thanks to a package of funding from the UK Government that the City Council bid for and won in 2020 under the Transforming Cities programme, as well as other sources of money such as Active Travel England.

Our latest projects include a cycle corridor on St Ann?s Well Road, which we?ll start work on in early autumn, and we also recently heard the great news that we have secured ?1.7m funding from Active Travel England for a new cycle corridor on Porchester Road which again will begin to provide infrastructure in the north-south corridor.

Our next step is to begin working up designs, consulting and engaging with residents to get the design right before we begin work.

Read more here

?To achieve our aim of becoming the first carbon neutral city in the UK by 2028, we need everyone to get involved. Nottingham City Council has joined up with eight Nottinghamshire councils to launch the Green Rewards programme.

Green Rewards has loads of suggestions for activities you can do to reduce your carbon footprint, including riding your bike, switching off electrical items, planting a tree, and ditching disposable items.

By signing up and logging your actions, you can win prizes like a monthly NCT bus pass, a family skating pass for the National Ice Centre, a Nottingham Playhouse voucher, and more.

Sign up and start earning your Green Points!

Tomorrow I am looking forward to taking part in the first event in Nottingham to celebrate 75^th Anniversary of Windrush.

I will be attending a talk at Nottingham Trent University with Author and Playwright Colin Grant as part of their Great Minds series, which highlights distinguished thinkers, leaders and innovators from every discipline and culture. Colin Grant?is a historian and author who has written six books, often telling the stories of the African Caribbean community in Britain.

More information about tomorrow?s event can be found here - Great Minds: Colin Grant - Windrush Stories | Nottingham Trent University