Camcycle board of trustees

Individual members of the Board of Trustees are listed below and should generally be contacted via the main Camcycle contact details.

Each year, at our Annual General Meeting (AGM) in January, members elect trustees for the upcoming year. The Board can also choose to co-opt additional trustees throughout the year, in line with our charity’s constitution. We welcome expressions of interest from people of all skills and backgrounds at any time throughout the year; find out more about becoming a trustee here and please get in touch!

 

Gabriel Bienzobas

I started cycling as a child in Spain, but fell in love with cycling as an adult when I moved to Cambridge in 2007. I was mainly a sport cyclist for many years until I became a father, when I started cycling with my daughter to her nursery. Now I fully understand that they are two different activities. 

Much like other trustees, I would like active travel to be the most accessible and convenient means of transportation for all journeys in the city. This involves fully integrated transport options so that better cycling provision comes alongside better public transport and walking facilities. One area where I would particularly like to see progress is in the travel connections between villages and towns in the Cambridge periphery. 

Since joining Camcycle as a trustee in 2020, I have helped in a variety of roles – drafting planning applications and consultation responses, delivering leaflets, helping with the HR subcommittee and fundraising, and providing support to the Camcycle staff where needed. Before joining Camcycle as a trustee, in my role as Milton Cycling Campaign lead, we obtained a grant from South Cambs District Council to improve cycle parking facilities in the village. 

In my continued role as a Camcycle trustee, I will support our HR processes and work with Camcycle’s staff to improve the outreach of the organisation to villages and towns in the Greater Cambridge area.

Nigel Deakin

I first became involved in cycle campaigning in 1985, with Cambridge Friends of the Earth, and joined Cambridge Cycling Campaign when it was formed in 1995. In 1997 I was elected to its executive committee, and continued on the board until 2005. During that time I was actively involved in campaigning, holding meetings with council officers, writing letters, and preparing responses to consultations. I have been less active since then, though I have remained closely involved with Camcycle.

Cycling is my main form of transport (together with walking, and sitting on trains). In addition I also cycle for pleasure: I just love being on my bike and going places, both locally and further afield. Most weeks I go for leisurely bike rides with local cycling club CTC Cambridge, and have spent many happy days discovering the region’s countryside, and the towns and villages around Cambridge. I am an elected committee member of CTC Cambridge and have run its website for several years.

As a Camcycle trustee my main interest is in helping to steer its campaigning work – calling for more and better cycle infrastructure, and a safer and more pleasant road environment. These need to work for everyone: young and old, fast and not-so-fast, night as well as day, and winter as well as summer. In addition, as a longstanding member I know that the strength of Camcycle is its members and will be seeking to make sure that members continue to be closely involved in everything we do. Professionally I’m a software developer, which may be helpful as Camcycle improves its IT systems and strategy.

Trustee nominee Sue Edwards Sue Edwards

Cycling has been my main way of getting around Cambridge since I came here as a student many years ago. I joined the campaign in 2004 and started helping with newsletter delivery not long after. Then in 2014, I became membership secretary and a trustee, which meant that David Earl had time to develop a much better membership system for us which he’s still adding to so we get to discuss further enhancements.

For the last few years I’ve also been coordinating distribution of the printed copies of our quarterly magazine which involves organising delivery rounds, coordinating volunteer deliverers and ensuring those to be delivered further afield get to the post office (some as far as York!). More recently, I’ve been involved in planning what we need to do for the transition to a CIO. I collaborate with the staff team and enjoy contributing to Camcycle’s work to improve life for cyclists in the region, and would be happy to continue.

Robin Heydon

I have lived in the Cambridge area for the last 20 years. I regularly cycle six miles to and from work. Having cycled in many other countries around the world, I have seen both great and not-so-great cycle infrastructure. Cambridge is still a long way from being the world-class city that I think it deserves to be. There are two things that we need to achieve to make Cambridge and its surrounding rural villages the best place to cycle in the world.

First, we need high quality cycle infrastructure in the places where people want to cycle. We need to make the case for a comprehensive primary network of cycle routes, segregated cycleways mainly along the main roads that link where we live to where we need to be. Second, we need to create policies that foster these aspirations including details sometimes forgotten such as cycle parking standards and wayfinding. This year as trustee, I will focus on progressing our work on policy.

Anthony Painter

Cambridge and its surrounding area is one of the best places in Europe to bring up a family. There are many changes coming as the city expands. So the work of Camcycle has never been more important: to campaign to ensure that there is an extensive network facilitating healthy, safe, attractive cycling in the city and beyond. I have been active in the Cambridgeshire Parents for Sustainable Travel campaign and, as a Camcycle trustee, I aim to contribute to Cambridge and its region being seen as a beacon when it comes to active travel.

In my day job, I head up research, policy and external affairs for a major educational charity. Previously, I headed up the social change and policy think tank at the Royal Society of Arts. It is important to me to combine the best evidence with good policy solutions and positive coalition building. I have been a college vice chair of governors and sit on the board of a campaigning organisation.

Mark Searle

I grew up in Cambridge, riding bikes as an everyday part of life. On returning to the city in 2010 I found a renewed love of cycling for both transport and leisure. By 2015 I had joined Camcycle and switched careers, working briefly as a cycle courier for Outspoken Delivery, before joining Outspoken Cycles, where I became General Manager in 2018. This summer I left for a new role at Cyclecentric, as Product Manager for their utilitarian tandems and folding bikes.

While managing Outspoken Cycles I grew the business over five years, including opening the cargo bike shop and developing a number of projects across the region to encourage cycling. My role involved working closely with a range of project stakeholders including local authorities, businesses, universities and travel consultancies. I often worked alongside Camcycle and it’s been amazing watching the incredible work of the organisation and its members. I would like to bring my experience managing a small but agile cycling business to help Camcycle where I can, and to be part of their exciting journey at such a critical time for the city.

 

Sarah Whitebread

I am excited to join the Camcycle Board to help further the progress of a cause I care so much about in the city I love. I grew up in South Cambridgeshire, lived in Cambridge for around 15 years as a young adult and now live in Ely. It is fantastic to see Camcycle working more and more in the wider region, and I hope to support efforts to improve cycling provision in Ely and beyond.

I started cycling as a daily form of transport when living in Cambridge in my early 20s. I loved the sense of freedom and just the joy of it. My background is in campaigning and political advocacy. I worked for the Liberal Democrats in Cambridge for many years and was a County Councillor for Market ward from 2009-2013. In 2011 I studied for an MPhil in Environmental Policy in the Department of Land Economy at Cambridge and for my dissertation chose to focus on the wellbeing impacts of different modes of transport. My research concluded that yes, cycling is the happiest form of travel! In 2015 I started working for the RSPB where I lead on political engagement through a period of significant change in environmental legislation post Brexit. I am now an Account Director at Seahorse Environmental, where my work involves advising NGO and corporate clients on political and communications strategy. I have always been passionate about environmental causes and for many years was a trustee of Cambridge Carbon Footprint. The environmental charity sector in Cambridge do such fantastic work and I hope through my work on the Camcycle Board to support it to continue having real impact.

Ed Williams

I am a lifelong cyclist and love cycling in all its guises. I ride for enjoyment, health and utility and try to help others to do the same. I live near Mill Road and think Cambridge is a fantastic place, a vibrant and engaging city that punches well above its weight. Growing up in car-centric Northamptonshire, I relied on lifts from my dad to get around and blamed that dependence on my age. Moving from suburbia to various cities, I began appreciating the freedom of living car-light. Instead, I was able to use trains, buses, walking and my bike. I took note of this infrastructure, or lack thereof, and the benefits that it provided to all.

I am a chartered civil engineer by trade and have been involved in delivering several major construction projects, primarily in rail and underground infrastructure. I am passionate about sustainability and want to find better ways to build and shape our environment. In our time of omni-crisis and climate catastrophe, I see no simpler solution than enabling everyone to use the cheap, healthy, enjoyable and sustainable transport that is the bicycle.

Camcycle has achieved significant success over the last two decades and our future aspirations should be limitless. I hope to assist the team in continuing to demand positive change.