ONE less bicycle theft on the streets of Penhill and Build-a-Bike will prove to have been worth the efforts of volunteer mechanic John Paine.

John, 51, of Hilmarton Avenue, has agreed to donate his time to Penhill Community Association (PCA), which has masterminded a 10-week programme, due to start on Saturday, which will see youngsters build their own bikes.

After growing up in Sussex, where from the age of nine John would build his own bikes, he moved to Penhill and currently restores scrapped bike frames and sells them on in aid of Swindon charity Scrapstore.

Now, after numerous puncture repairs for the young riders in his street, John wants to put his time into an organised programme.

“I have always built my own bikes, since I was nine,” said John.

“Back in Sussex I used to buy the bikes from the tip and do them up for my mates. It was pocket money for me.

“I got involved in this because I live in Penhill. It gives Penhill a better name and the kids will hopefully learn something.

“There’s the satisfaction of stopping one kid from nicking a bike too. I’m not saying they all nick them, but 10 per cent probably do help themselves to other people’s bikes.

“Kids in the road always come to me for punctures and it’s getting a bit too much really. I keep thinking they really should be watching me do this.

“I was nine years old when I started and this boy’s 11 and he doesn’t know how to do a puncture.

“They rely on mum and dad to buy them a new bike.”

Since the initial piece on Build-a-Bike in the Adver last weekend there has been a fresh influx of interest and help offered by people and businesses.

Clare Foreman, secretary of PCA, said carpet had been donated to protect Chippenham Close Community Centre’s floor during the sessions, as well as more scrap bikes, which can be used.

Clare also said Clearwater Vehicles, a used car sales firm in Cirencester, had spent more than £150 on five tool kits for the children to use.

John said the programme still needed tyres and inner tubes for the children to add to their bikes ahead of its start on Saturday.

All places are now taken on this run of sessions, with a waiting list for further classes already mounting in Clare’s notebook.

Interest has also been shown by Swindon Council’s Jane Deeley, school travel adviser with the authority.

“It’s empowering young people to do things for themselves,” she said. “This will make them independent travellers, not relying on their parents to take them everywhere.

“We will see what goodies we can provide them with.

“Somebody has seen a gap, a problem, and found a solution for it out on the ground.

“We need people like that, who have contacts in the community, with support from ourselves, who can make a difference.”