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Oscar hands out 3,000 bikes
Deborah Haile
8/ 4/2008

WHEN a bicycle gets broken and chucked away, it's a great idea to . . . recycle it.

And that's just what Oscar Brogden has done with an astonishing 3,000 of them.

Then Oscar, an engineer who's a dab-hand at repairing bikes, has given them away to local youngsters.

Oscar devotes much of his spare time to fixing broken and damaged bikes that have been thrown away and are destined for the tip.

He works at Manchester council's Hammerstone Road depot in Gorton and an army of eagle-eyed refuse collectors take in the bikes instead of taking them to landfill.

He then restores them and passes them on for nothing - usually to Manchester youngsters who regularly turn up at the depot in the hope of being able to pedal away.

His 3,000th bike has just been given to Demilio O'Brien, from Hincaster Walk, Gorton, who has been getting bikes from Oscar since he was seven. Now he has been nominated for our Manchester Heroes Awards.

He said: "Me and my friends really like Oscar and we all get bikes from him. My bike is great - you can do tricks on it.

"I'm going to ride around with my friends in Fallowfield and Debdale."

Good-hearted

Demilio's mum, Georgina, said: "Oscar's a good-hearted person. All the local kids talk about him."

Depot controller Oscar, 62, from Abbey Hey, has been restoring the bikes for more than 10 years.

He said: "I started doing this because I couldn't believe they were just going to waste. I noticed bikes on the wagons going to the tip, so I asked the lads to bring them here and they were only too pleased. We can do something with most bikes that we get, or we use two to make one.

"The important thing is that they don't end up in landfill - they end up with people getting satisfaction out of them.

"I do this for three hours a night or a whole Saturday sometimes. I enjoy it - but I couldn't do it without the help of the people who work here and those who bring things in."

Oscar told how the great giveaway started - and how word spread. "I work at the depot entrance," he said, "and this kid came up and asked if he could have the bike that was there. I said yes and it started from there - word got round that there was a bloke giving bikes away.

As well as mending bikes, he has helped to set up four projects across the city, where youngsters are helped to restore broken bikes for themselves - learning new skills and picking up a set of wheels into the bargain.

Coun Eddy Newman said: "For more than a decade, Oscar has been performing a wonderful service, not just to members of the east Manchester community, but to the environment. I hope he goes on to restore another 3,000 bikes."

Oscar has also taken it upon himself to return stolen purses ending up at the depot after being thrown in litter bins. So far, he says, he has matched up 1,073 purses with their owners.

You have to admire the man and good luck to him.

I don’t want to put the dampers on this but, how long before the council stop him doing it on grounds of "Health and Safety".

Bearing in mind that any child injured by a failure of the cycle would have valid grounds to compensation.

Surely it is a rite of passage to part company with a bicycle at some stage of our young life as part of the learning curve that we can't hold that wheelie for the length of the high st

What an excellent job this good man is doing, well deserving of an award.
But I also beg the question, why was perfectly good metal being sent to landfill, surely it can be melted down and used again, or even better as this good man is doing.

But would Mummy and Daddy see it that way ?