Covid puts the brakes on East Lothian-wide ebike hire scheme

A virtual meeting of East Lothian Council’s cabinet was given a final update on the work done as part of its Spaces for People project, which aimed to make town centres safer and encourage outdoor activities in the first year of lockdown.

And it was told that while more than £1 million was spent on successful schemes, including widening footpaths, cycle lanes and reducing speed limits, other projects were unable to be introduced in the 12-month time limit on funding.

This included proposals to introduce ebike hire schemes in town across the county, with Musselburgh the only place where the scheme got off the ground.

Alan Stubbs, the council’s road services manager, told the meeting: “The ambitions were extremely high at the start of Spaces for People to procure a lot of ebikes but, down to Covid and supply and demand, we could not do that.”

READ MORE: Ebikes available for hire in Musselburgh

His colleague Morag Haddow added: “There was a worldwide shortage of bikes in 2020.”

The meeting was told that plans to roll out the ebikes remained in place; however, there was now also a shortage of the stations used to store the ebikes, which meant that plans to have them as a permanent addition at Prestonpans Railway Station were also delayed.

The cabinet was asked to agree to make permanent a range of measures introduced during the Scottish Government-funded Spaces for People initiative funded, including the plans to extend the ebike scheme and reduce speed limits in town centres to 20mph.

The funding which was made available for projects was to be used in 2020/21 and the council did manage to agree to some extra funding being carried over to this year, but future projects will need to find new funding.

A busy cycle rack in Gullane

Councillor Colin McGinn called on the Scottish Government to look at ways for councils to access the money needed to introduce the schemes, which were drawn up after public consultation.

He said: “The Scottish Government has to realise the ambitions of local authorities like East Lothian to moving people around our county.

"Look at the number of electric car charging points we have around the county? We would like to see that replicated with ebikes as well.”

Changes which were introduced as part of the project and which will become permanent after cabinet unanimously supported them were new cycle parking areas at beach car parks and other attractions, the re-timing of pedestrian crossings to stop crowds gathering, and new speed limits.

They also agreed to make a segregated footpath created between Cockenzie and Prestonpans permanent, along with a widened footpath at Countess Road, Dunbar, and a new path at Hallhill, Dunbar, and the ebike hire scheme, when possible.

And they backed making 20mph zones introduced during Spaces for People permanent.

Councillor Norman Hampshire, council leader, said that the Spaces for People changes were made during the pandemic to give people space to move around safely in their towns.

He said: “I think the interventions which are in place are the right interventions.”