Dame Sarah Storey has set out her stall after she was announced as the new cycling and walking commissioner for Greater Manchester.

The 44-year-old, who grew up in Salford and has since become Great Britain’s most successful Paralympian, will start the new job in May, working alongside the newly-appointed transport commissioner Vernon Everitt from London.

The pair were announced by Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham as he presented his post-pandemic vision for the city-region in the city centre on Monday (14 March). 

It comes after former Olympic cyclist Chris Boardman, who previously took up the role, became England’s Active Travel Commissioner earlier this year.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service after the announcement, Dame Sarah said she’s excited to pick up where her predecessor left off.

She said: “I was born here so for me, this is home.

“I’ve done a significant amount of my personal growth in Greater Manchester from benefiting from the Manchester Aquatics Centre to the Velodrome.

“So for me it’s home and it’s always been incredibly exciting for me to see what’s happening across the city-region. I lived in Salford for a little while. When I was born, I lived in Cheadle Hulme. And I now live just outside the boundary, but for me, Manchester’s always been home.

“To be able to make a contribution to the great things that are happening here is a huge privilege so I’m very excited to be picking up on the amazing work Chris Boardman has left us with and to be able to add to that and roll it out further and further afield.”

Addressing an audience at Mayfield Depot, she said she was ‘thrilled’ to be coming home and promised that she would the case to government that “if you want to level up the North, you have to invest in people’s health”.

The decorated athlete said she will work closely with councils to make sure residents across the city-region are well-connected to the transport network.

She spoke of working with people who have disabilities and long-term health conditions in South Yorkshire where she has been active travel commissioner.

The multiple gold-medalist she wants to improve upon the work of Chris Boardman in Greater Manchester by ‘keeping step’ with technology change.

And she stressed the importance of pushing for subsidies for e-bikes.

She added: “We want to inspire people to take up physical activity for their own health and wellbeing and to make sure that they have that opportunity for themselves.

“But it’s also about being able to present the opportunity in different ways.

“We have to find the right way to communicate with those people. What’s right for somebody down in Stockport might not be the right solution for someone in Rochdale or over in Wigan.”