Summary

We have just completed a pilot bike hire scheme and the uptake was impressive, in spite of our famous hills! We would like to create an e-bike hire hub at our base in Auchenshoogle to encourage more people to get involved and build on the learning we developed as part of the pilot project. The e-bikes will be available at affordable rates for local people, along with trailers for children, and will be charged using our existing renewable energy supply.

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Description

Auchenshoogle Community Development Trust is a rural community development trust on Arran, established over 20 years ago to address the unique challenges of rural island life by putting people at the centre of our community's future. Since then, we've taken significant land into local ownership and created a vibrant community hub and events space in a rual location, which is used for everything from destination weddings to local village meetings. We host a range of organisations in our hub who meet throughout the week to learn, chat and keep the community spirit alive: whether it's yoga, art, befriending or practical skills like mechanics or woodturning, there's probably a group here that will meet your needs!

We have recently completed a year-long pilot of a bike hire scheme, initially using bikes donated on the island and repaired through one of our workshop groups. We monitored uptake over the year through surveys and feedback, and were surprised to find that it wasn't just tourists picking up a bike on a good day: local people without cars were also making the most of the bikes to run short errands around the village, and it's this local interest that's made us keen to invest in active travel on a permanent basis. We've already got significant renewable energy development on site, meaning that the bikes can be charged off grid using clean energy, which is important to us and to the people living in the village. Bus services on the island can be challenging, and while we can't overhaul the island's infrastructure on our own, an e-bike hire scheme would enable us to improve it at a microlevel.

Based on demand from our pilot, we'd like to invest in 10 e-bikes initially, along with 5 trailers for children (or shopping, or dogs!), which will make them a practical and viable alternative for people without a car. The bikes will be maintained through our workshops, which have just completed an e-bike repair course, and hire packages will be available for day, week and month-long periods.