Boris Bikes are set to move into Hammersmith and Fulham during next year.

Hammersmith and Fulham Council's Cabinet agreed at a meeting this week to authorise Cllr Victoria Brocklebank-Fowler, the Cabinet Member for Transport and Technical Services to enter into an agreement with Transport for London to extend the Mayor of London's Cycle Hire scheme into the borough.

The agreement follows a report from Cllr Brocklebank-Fowler, saying that TfL now plan to extend the scheme to the whole of Fulham, and Hammersmith eastwards from the town centre up to Shepherds Bush, as well as the northern part of Wandsworth. This is known as Phase 3 of the scheme.

TfL believe that the scheme will attract large numbers of users from LBHF, firstly because a large number - some 3,900 - of registered users of the existing scheme live
in our borough and secondly because TfL’s market research suggests that there is a large potential market in the borough.

TfL aim to provide a docking station every 300-400 metres, and are looking to provide 60-70 stations in the borough.

In order to facilitate efficient servicing, they stipulate that each station should have spaces for a minimum of 25 bicycles.

Maps accompanying the report show that provisional locations either approved or being considered by the council include sites on the edge of our main parks, including Brook Green and Ravenscourt Park in Hammersmith and South and Bishops Parks, Eel Brook Common and Parsons Green in Fulham, plus sites close to the borough's main roads and by the riverside.

The report says that possible sites suggested by the public TfL officers and Council officers have been evaluated against a range of criteria, including the effects on car parking, trees, crime prevention, waste, highways, arks, heritage and conservation and planning, with several sites eliminated where there are fundamental objections on one or more of these grounds.

Sites which have survived this process are being designed in detail to TfL, who intend to hold a series of public exhibitions in the borough this autumn to get the views of the public.

They will then apply to the Council for planning permission for each site. Subject to the agreement of their board in September, TfL intend to implement Phase 3 of the scheme in May 2013.

To implement Phase 3, TfL require a contribution of £2 million from the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and the council cabinet agreed at the meeting that the most appropriate source of funding is contributions from developers, either through Section 106 agreements or the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).

The council says high levels of cycling are necessary to enable large scale developments to take place without putting undue strain on the highway and public transport networks, and the Cycle Hire Scheme is an appropriate way of encouraging and facilitating cycling.

The report adds that officers have been negotiating with developers on the provision of
funding for the cycle hire scheme since the extension was mooted by TfL in the summer of 2011. These developers are likely to include St George, the developer behind Imperial Wharf, Chelsea Creek and Fulham Reach and Barratt who are developing Fulham Wharf.

Docking stations have already been installed around the Westfield Centre in Shepherd's Bush as part of Phase 2 of the project, with Westfield covering the cost.

 

September 7, 2012