Hackney Council won a prestigious award at the London Smarter Travel Awards earlier this month for their ‘Wheels and Heels’ fashion show event.

Hackney’s Streetscene Team picked up the Marketing and Travel Awareness Event of the Year award on the 10th July at an awards dinner held by Transport for London in Holborn.

The awards recognise outstanding sustainable travel work in London’s local authorities, schools and businesses.
Hackney’s innovative ‘Wheels and Heels’ event was held in February and saw Columbia Road transformed into a catwalk for cycle style at London Fashion Week’s most unique event.

Ben Plowden, Director of Smarter Travel at Transport for London said: "London really is beginning to travel smarter. Since Transport for London was created in 2000, we ve seen a five per cent shift away from private car use towards public transport, walking and cycling. That is in no small part thanks to fantastic projects such as Wheels and Heels, which are helping people change the way they travel. The Smarter Travel Awards are our way of thanking people for the hard work they are putting in to making London a cleaner, greener, healthier and less congested city."

Councillor Alan Laing, Hackney Council’s Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods said: “Winning this award is a fantastic achievement. The event was a brilliant success. It really highlighted the Councils’ efforts to promote cycling as a sustainable and healthy form of transport. Well done to the team involved in making it happen.”
The show was a collaborative project between Hackney Council and Tower Hamlets Council which aimed to achieve a greater uptake of cycling particularly amongst young women by showing that cycling can be an accessible, fun and fashionable way to get around London. The event attracted a diversity of people, with local residents and traders rubbing shoulders with people from the fashion industry, and many young women attending to see the amazing display of style and talent.

Hackney Council would like to thank the talented designers that were involved in the project from Amy Fleuriot, Archie’s Grobags, b:inc, Boulder Boutique, Cyclodelic, Dashing Tweeds, Glovedup, Hoai-oanh Vu, Swallows, Smeear, Two N Fro, Rapha, Natalia Rose, Sarah Buck. Hackney Council would also like to thank Bobbins Bicycles, Condor, Velorution, Vans, Shop 172 and Westminster City Council for their support of this project.

To find out more about the event visit www.hackney.gov.uk/wheelsandheels or contact Louisa Clarke from Hackney Council on 020 8356 8189.