Plans to create a ‘Boris bike’ style bicycle hire service in the New Forest have been cancelled. Members of the New Forest national park authority voted last week not to proceed with what would have been the UK’s first rural public bike hire system.

Fears about the financial sustainability of the £2M scheme along with a lack of local support led to the scheme’s demise, according to the minutes of an authority meeting.

The scheme would have seen up to 250 bicycles for hire at 20 sites in the South Eastern corner of the New Forest close to several tourist attractions and railway stations.

Chairman of the national park authority Oliver Crosthwaite-Eyre said: “This would have been an innovative project that had clear benefits to offer. However we have concluded that the risks of setting up the scheme now outweigh the benefits.

“We simply could not justify spending a considerable amount of Government money on a system that might not be able to survive and which seems to have insufficient support in the key locations of the forest where it needs to operate from.”

The public bike hire system was part of a New Forest cycling programme funded by a £3.57M grant from the Department for Transport.

Cycle charity Sustrans area manager Nick Farthing said: “This is a very disappointing decision as the bike loan scheme would have been a great new resource for transport and leisure.

“I hope that the funding granted by the Department for Transport will still be available for other projects to improve safe cycling infrastructure.”

(Photo: Jonathan Billinger)

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