Greenwich Council’s scheme to issue £150 bike vouchers for residents aged 16 or under is pencilled in to start next year, the councillor in charge of the project has said.
Labour had pledged to issue the vouchers, which can be used to buy bikes, scooters and safety equipment, in its manifesto for the council election in May, which it won. It was among the most talked-about policies of the campaign.
Calum O’Byrne Mulligan, the cabinet member for transport, said he hoped other boroughs would copy the active travel scheme, for which all 4 to 16 year-olds will be eligible – and a later phase could enable families to pick up second-hand bikes from those whose children who had grown out of their cycles.
He said talks were still ongoing with local and national retailers about the scheme, while council officers were working on ways that children who attend schools outside the borough could benefit.
The council was also talking to government officials about buying in a scheme rather than having to design one itself, he added.
“I think we’re talking about 2027 because it’s important to get this right,” O’Byrne Mulligan told the transport and place scrutiny panel on Thursday. “The worst thing we could do is rush it and then have a scheme that doesn’t function.
“So we are thinking a bit to make sure we do this in the right way, and also engaging with some of the large national retailers to see if we can leverage some of them to help highlight this to our residents and build the size, scale and reach of the scheme as well. So the first part of next year is our ambition.”
O’Byrne Milligan said the scheme would be paid for by cash from developers earmarked for decarbonisation. “We think this is one of the most effective ways to decarbonise journeys in the borough is by encouraging children to cycle,” he said.
A second phase of the scheme would create an “exchange market” where bikes could be passed through generations. “We’ll have to see how it lands,” he said.
“If we get this right, I think it’s something that other local authorities will also pick up across London and across the country, which I really think can be a powerful way of decarbonising journeys and helping kids get active and healthy on bikes and scooters.”
The Creekside councillor added that new “school streets” schemes, where roads are closed to traffic at the start and end of the school day, the planned borough-wide 20mph zone and safer routes for cyclists were all important for the project to work.
He said that the disruption caused by Cycleway 4 works in Charlton and Woolwich would be worth it.
“As somebody who lives right by Cycleway 4 in the west of the borough, it is astonishing to see people not just riding with young children, but teaching their kids how to ride a bike Creek Road, something which would have been completely unimaginable four years ago.”
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