Environmentalists drive car club scheme in Kendal (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Environmentalists drive car club scheme in Kendal

3:14pm Thursday 2nd July 2009

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A PAY-AS-YOU-DRIVE car sharing scheme could be the key to cutting Kendal’s congestion - and saving motorists thousands of pounds.

Environmentalists want to copy big cities and station a fleet of fuel-efficient vehicles in the town’s streets and car parks, which residents would book online and pay an hourly rate for.

Driving the initiative is South Lakeland District Council, which believes it could cut carbon emissions, remove dozens of cars from busy residential streets and slash participants’ annual motoring bills.

Around 100 residents have shown interest so far - and if more come forward it could unlock funding worth tens of thousands of pounds so they could set up their own co-operative.

Otherwise a private company could get behind the wheel, introducing ‘smartcard’ technology which would enable users to unlock vehicles with a flash of their membership card and access keys using pin numbers and dashboard devices.

Staveley resident Alistair Kirkbride, who worked for the charity Car Plus, which promotes responsible car use, said: “Something like this will fly in Kendal, it’s the ideal community to take it and run with it. There are residents with parking problems, there are ‘early adopters’ - people who will come on board from the offset because they care for the environment - and there are businesses that could benefit from a flexible system of pool cars.”

According to Car Plus, participants driving less than 6,000 miles a year can save up to £1,500. Development manager Simon Parker said the average operator would charge £4-£5.50 per hour, with additional fees kicking in once a user went over 40 miles.

“There would be no limit to how far they could drive, or how long they would keep the car - as long as it was free when they booked online. Usually there are about 25 users per vehicle - normally Citroën C3s - and we aim to have cars parked within a five minute walk of a user’s home for convenience,” he said.

Sonny Khan of South Lakes Action on Climate Change said: “Figures from other established car clubs show that for every car club vehicle created, 22 cars are taken off the road. These figures really back up what a great idea this is.”

SLDC’s climate change officer Caroline Turner added that a scheme could be in place by the end of the year.

“I’ve used car share clubs in Australia and found them cheap and convenient so I’m very keen for something to be developed here.

“We’ve got a number of options and everything comes down to the level of interest we get from the public.

“We want people to fill in our online survey (at www.southlakeland.gov.uk) and once we’ve got the results the next step will be working with (Cumbria County Council) to see whether these cars should be parked on council car parks or the streets.”

SLDC’s climate change team will be at Kendal’s Birdcage on Thursday (July 9) from 11am-3pm with more information

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