London council to loan out free bikes for a month to all its residents

Kingston council is facing increasing pressure on its roads

Kingston council is attempting to ease pressure on its roads by promoting cycling (Getty)

A London borough is loaning out free bikes for a month in a bid to boost cycling amid increasing transport pressures.

Kingston council is pushing cycling in the borough in an attempt to deal with its growing population and the pressure this will place on its roads in the future. It estimates the population will swell by 30 per cent by 2050, adding an extra 50,000 people to the borough, which its roads will not be able to cope with.

The scheme allows anyone who lives, works or studies in the borough of Kingston Upon Thames to sign up and borrow a brand new bike for a month. It will also loan out helmets, locks and lights, and offer cycling training to those who want it. People are then required to return the bikes at the end of the month or have the chance buy them for a reduced price.

Two years ago Kingston council was allocated over £30m from the Mayor of London and Transport for London’s Mini-Holland programme, which is designed to improve streets, cycling safety and provisions for cyclists in the capital.

Part of the investment Kingston is putting into its cycling scheme is widening certain streets to allow room for better cycle paths. Some residents have hit out at the disruption this has caused however, which has seen entire stretches of roads dug up and trees removed from streets targeted for improvement.

Nick Booth wrote into the Surrey Comet claiming that “vandals have ripped up trees all along the Portsmouth Road and Queens Promenade. Not only that, but they’ve dug up the entire stretch of road that runs along the Thames from Thames Ditton into Kingston. It’s carnage!”

Kingston Councillor Terry Paton responded to the letter, claiming that the construction in the area is due to a new cycle path and that some trees had to be removed in the process, though they will be replaced with semi-mature trees.