Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Bike2Go scheme costs taxpayers £101 per trip

By ANNA BLYTH
Published on 22/09/2012 01:41

THE first publicly funded bicycle rental scheme in Scotland has been criticised after figures showed it had cost taxpayers £101.37 for every journey taken.

Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Bike2Go scheme was launched in 2010 after Transport Scotland gave the local authority £155,000.

It was supposed to replicate popular rental schemes in Paris, Barcelona, Stockholm and London, where millions of journeys are clocked up every year.

But there have only been 1,529 recorded rentals, the equivalent of 20 a week.

Jonathan Isaby, of Taxpayer Scotland, which is linked to the London-based Taxpayers’ Alliance, condemned Dumfries and Galloway Council for not assessing the costs involved in launching the scheme.

He said: “For fewer than 20 bikes to have been rented each week since its inception suggests that insufficient work was done before the scheme was introduced to assess likely demand.

“This lack of planning and poor resource management has meant that a considerable sum of hard-pressed taxpayers’ cash has been squandered on a project that is clearly failing to deliver value for money.”

Deputy council leader Brian Collins, who is also chairman of regional transport agency Swestrans, which runs the scheme, said: “We’re in this for the long term, not some sort of short-term fix.

“We’re seeking a change of mindset, so obviously that isn’t going to be achieved overnight.”