Volunteers bike through city to hand out donations

One hundred volunteers took to the streets of London on bikes this weekend, delivering donated supplies to those sleeping rough in the run up to Christmas.

The ride out was organised by Verral Paul Walcott, founder of C86ERZ, as part of an annual Christmas drive supporting London's homeless.

Mr Walcott cycles across the capital throughout the year, handing out donated items to those in need, but this was an opportunity for people of all ages to join forces and give back to their own communities over Christmas.

Volunteer cyclists were kitted out with donated Lime and Forest bikes on Friday evening, and food, presents and toiletries were supplied by local businesses and schools.

Teams of cyclists then broke off to supply different parts of London, heading back roughly to where they live so that the roads and hopefully rough sleepers were familiar to them.

"This only happens once a year... And everybody helps the homeless. They go on a big bike ride around the city," said seven-year-old Ben, a school friend of Mr Walcott's son Hudson.

"I have everything I need but other people don't. Some people, they need things, they need help, that's why I'm here today," said Ted, Ben's twin brother.

The Christmas rideout helps teams cover more ground than they could on foot, and reach spaces they could not by car, said Mr Walcott.

"With a bike you can go to various locations very fast or even change location based on when you've been notified when someone needs help," he added.

Local businesses and other campaigners were also there to offer support, including Mitch Winehouse, the father of late singer Amy Winehouse.

He started the Amy Winehouse Foundation more than 10 years ago supporting homeless young people.

"When we started the foundation which was just after Amy passed away in 2011 one of the first things that we looked at was homelessness," said Mr Winehouse.

"Before Amy passed away, she took a homeless person off the street and she looked after her for six months, which is an incredible thing to do really."

He said that at the time, he asked his daughter "what on earth do you think you're doing".

Mr Winehouse added: "She said don't worry about it dad I'm looking after her and she's going to be alright."

Local restaurant Prezidential Flavas supplied all of the hot meals for the night, delivering them to those in tents and hostels across the capital.

"We've made jerk chicken and white rice," said owner Teon Hammond.

"I've always been a man of my community, and I've always been about giving back, that's why I'm out here."

Recent figures showed the number of people sleeping rough in London had risen by almost a fifth.

A total of 4,780 rough sleepers were seen on the capital's streets between July and September, according to the latest Combined Homelessness and Information Network (Chain) statistics.

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