Just round the corner from the riveside cycle path in the heart of York is a rather special place.

It is somewhat unassuming - no big fanfare or sign. A ladder reaches up to a loading bay stacked with piles of bicycles. But that is not the way in. A note pinned to the wall directs us round the corner and into the premises of York's BikeRescue enterprise started and run by Andy Scaife and Bernie (Bernadette) Cullen since May 2006.

Fairly nondescript commercial property on the outside becomes a warren of breezeblock walls with bicycles and bicycle parts in every conceivable location. A thousand bicycles a year pass through these walls, most of them cheap and cheerful mass market items but a few treasures as well.

"No one wants to take their bike to the crusher" says Bernie. "We get one of two bikes donated every day and we have always opened on thursdays until 8pm and thats when we get lots of donations."

BikeRescue do not pay for bikes as they do not want to encourage cycle theft. There is now an agreement to put a bike bank at the local tip from which BikeRescue will collect on a regular basis.

It hasn't always been like this. The recycling scheme began as an offshoot of Andy's business as a mobile bicycle repair man. He rescued bikes from the tip and was soon planning to obtain a container to send recycled bikes to Africa. It was then that he met a kindred spirit in Bernie at a party where they discussed the merits of 'k' series S.A. hubs.

Then, during a seminar at the Bike Station and they realised that a similar recycling scheme could be run in York. Renovating old bicycles and selling them on to the burgeoning student population began to take an increasing amount of time, and as most of Bernie's back garden became buried under mountains of old bikes it became essential to put the scheme onto a firmer footing.