“There are lots of young and retired people in Chichester with no access to affordable bikes,” said local resident Clare de Bathe. 

“There’s a lack of affordable bikes in the area. Entry level bikes seem to be several hundred pounds and that’s a problem for people facing transport poverty. 

“Plus, once you’ve got a bike, there’s the cost of repairs – not everyone can spend £25 every time a puncture happens.” 

As CEO of Chichester Community Development Trust, Clare helps set up community businesses. And when the stipulations of a new property development included the provision of a community space – using it for a bike business tackling transport poverty was an excellent fit. 

So Clare and three other founders set up The Chichester Bike Project, a charitable community benefit society (CBS) that opened its doors in March 2024. 

With a community share offer currently live, Clare and her colleagues are aiming to raise around £100,000 in investment for a mixture of equipment and staffing costs to get the new enterprise off to the best possible start. 

Meanwhile, as well as restoring and selling affordable, second-hand bikes, they’re piloting a number of services and schemes. “Our Earn A Bike workshops are for those who can’t afford to buy a bike,” said Clare. “They volunteer with us, helping repair a bike, which becomes theirs.”

The team also runs Fix A Bike workshops for adults and After School Bikes workshops for 8‑18‑year‑olds – where people can learn bike repair and maintenance skills for free. 

“Once the share offer is complete, we’ll be able to grow the business in terms of staffing and what we offer,” said Clare, who explained why the business was set up as a CBS:

We were keen that it should be community owned. We felt the sustainability would be there and local residents and stakeholders would get lots of support. 

Clare de Bathe, Founding Director, The Chichester Bike Project 

“We didn’t want it to be the pet project of just one leader at the top. It’s a lot safer to have a community run business with a lot more people involved.” 

To set up as a CBS and prepare their share offer, The Chichester Bike Project was supported by the Community Shares Unit (CSU) at Co‑operatives UK. 

“The CSU gave us some support to understand what a community benefit society is and why we should start one. The second phase was funding to help us prepare our share offer,” Clare recalled.  

The team were awarded a £10,000 development grant from the Community Shares Booster Fund. They were also signposted to professionals who could help them prepare their share offer document and have it assessed for the Community Shares Standard Mark – a guarantee of a quality share offer. 

“It’s been a massive learning curve, particularly around the finance aspect of the share offer,”  Clare said. 

We’ve learned lots and been so lucky with the people we’ve worked with. That £10,000 support went a long way because the people the CSU recommended were really clever.

Clare de Bathe, The Chichester Bike Project 

The team have also been guaranteed £50,000 match funding from the Community Shares Booster Fund. “As soon as we raise £50,000 from the share offer, we’ll also receive £50,000 from the Booster Fund,” said Clare. 

“This is a gamer changer – it makes our offer an easier thing to sell to investors. The Booster Fund support massively validates the project. It’s seen as such a great organisation, so having it commit to our share offer is amazing.”