Merton is set to have its own bicycle hire scheme, despite losing out on the Mayor of London’s £100m ‘Mini Holland’ fund.
The council submitted a bid for £32m of Boris Johnson's fund to make town centres more cycle-friendly, but an announcement on March 10 revealed it was not successful.
Councillor Andrew Judge, cabinet member for environmental sustainability and regeneration, said the council has been told it will receive at least £10m towards cycling over possibly three years.
At a meeting on Wednesday, April 2, Coun Judge said the cycle scheme will not be an extension of the Barclays Cyle hire scheme (nicknamed Boris bikes), but a separate outer London HourBike hire system.
The Council is in negotiations with Brompton Docks and South London Partnership to see if an HourBike system would be suitable for Merton, Kingston, Sutton, Croydon and Richmond.
Coun Judge will be meeting with Andrew Gilligan, the Mayor's cycling commissioner, to confirm funding and agree which projects will go forward.
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