PUPILS at a group of Darlington schools are benefiting from a gift of refurbished ‘rescue bikes’ which have been repaired by young offenders.

Amanda Gledhill, deputy head teacher at the Federation of Abbey Schools said they were “delighted” to receive 17 BMX bikes from the Darlington Youth Offenders Scheme.

Bikes which have been been stolen and then recovered are donated by Darlington Police to the Youth Offenders Service.

The service then use them to teach bike maintenance skills to young offenders.

“We were delighted to receive the bikes and Kevin Kilcullen from Local Motion offered to come in to school to work with the staff on how the bikes can be used in school,” the deputy head added.