My friend Michael Atkins, who has died of cancer aged 70, was a dedicated environmentalist and political activist. As the county cycling officer for Lancashire county council, appointed in the late 1980s, he introduced many schemes and measures to improve safety and cycling quality. In his retirement, Michael and his fellow cyclist and socialist Peter Ward devised and planned the Preston Guild Wheel project, a 21-mile green circular cycling and walking route around Preston, officially opened in August 2012. The Guild Wheel was adopted by Preston city council as the legacy project of the guild, which takes place once every 20 years. It is a hugely popular facility and a model for local authorities to follow.
Michael was born in Edinburgh to Jessie and Frank Gubb. Michael came from a large political family on the left. His parents were in the Communist party. In 1950 Jessie married Ron Atkins and Michael took his stepfather's surname. Ron later became the Labour MP for Preston and Michael's sister Charlotte Atkins became the Labour MP for Staffordshire Moorlands.
I met Michael at Earls Colne grammar school near Halstead, Essex. At school he was quiet, studious and leftwing. We were the only members of CND in the sixth form and we marched from Aldermaston to London several times. He campaigned for the Labour party in elections in Witham and Coggeshall.
After school Michael became a civil engineer, training with British Railways and Essex county council. He moved to Lancashire as a civil engineer on motorway construction. He married Kathy, a Labour activist, in 1969, and was the Labour candidate for Blackpool in 1974. He also served as a Labour councillor in Preston as chair of the highways committee, bringing in traffic control and pedestrianisation schemes which were quite forward-thinking at the time.
Michael was a very early "green", renouncing the use of a car in favour of the bike and public transport. In his teenage years he cycled prodigious distances around Essex, and at the age of 17 cycled with two friends from Essex to the Lake District and back in the space of a week. He also became a climber and hill walker and he sailed around the isles of western Scotland with his mountaineering mates. He was a member of the Campaign for Real Ale and kept notes on the quality of real ale pubs for his local Camra branch. His stepfather taught him to appreciate jazz, a love which lasted a lifetime, and he also enjoyed philharmonic concerts, live theatre and travel overseas.
Michael is survived by Kathy, his children, Heather and Iain, his grandson, Ben, his brother, Donald, his sisters, Charlotte and Elizabeth, and his stepfather Ron.