A community centre in the East End of Glasgow is setting up a recycled bike project ...

in the shadow of the city's new velodrome.

Dalmarnock Community Centre is encouraging people of all ages to come down and borrow a bicycle.

The centre is next to the site of the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, being built to stage cycling events in 2014's Commonwealth Games.

The hope is that the project can encourage more people to get cycling and put the top class bike track to good use after the Games.

Yvonne Kucuk, 44, development manager at the centre, said: "We have a mix of adult and children's bikes and a disabled tricycle.

"People are coming every day and we are waiting to take possession of a container to store the bikes and for a bike repair shop."

The community centre buy their bikes from The Bike Station, a non-profit organisation run by volunteers.

They gather old and unwanted bicycles and restore them for people to use.

Yvonne said: "You see so many bikes being left to rust - but most can be fixed.

"The project will encourage kids to take the bikes to school so their parents don't need to use the car.

"We are in the shadow of the velodrome and we want people to use that.

"Hopefully we will get poten- tial athletes coming here - who knows, there may be many out there."

The project is backed by the Climate Change Fund, set up by the Scottish Government, to help communities reduce their carbon emissions.

Everyone who borrows a bike from the centre will be given an odometer to measure the distance they travel on the bike.

They will have to hand in their mileage and the centre will translate this into carbon footprint reduction.

As reported in the Evening Times, the centre has been working on its green credentials already and has planted an organic vegetable garden.

It already has 20 bikes and organisers hope to increase this to 50.

It has trained two local people, David Stewart 18, and Josh Riley, 15, to teach children about bike safety and to maintain the bikes.

Yvonne said: "We aim to do all the bike maintenance at the centre and for youngsters we will do bike proficiency tests."

Yvonne said: "Hopefully the project will grow because if we give kids a bike then they will not sit inside playing computer games, they will get out and use it.

"We hope that at Christmas they will be asking for better bikes, then when they get one they can hand in their old one for recycling.

"We live in an area of deprivation and many people don't have the money to buy bikes but if they want a bike they can ask us and get one."

Greg Chauvet, from The Bike Station, said: "We are happy to see the community in Dalmarnock cycling as it helps people have healthy lives and better social lives.

"When people ride the bikes they feel equal to everyone - they are part of a group and are as good as anyone else."