THE Beryl Bike hire scheme in Watford will be extended until 2031, the borough council has confirmed.

Around 120 extra e-bikes will be brought to the town as part of the extension, which represents an additional five years on top of the previous agreement. 

As part of the agreement, Beryl will also provide 400 minutes hire for free to people looking for jobs, community organisations will be given hire bundles worth £150, and 250 free 400-minute bundles will be distributed through GP surgeries and other social prescription organisations. 

Cllr Ian Stotesbury, portfolio holder for transport and sustainability, told a meeting yesterday (Monday, 19 January): “This is a really, really welcome reinjection into the local service.

“It has been a really successful scheme in Watford. We’ve had over 700,000 journeys, 1.6 million kilometres of travel so far on the bikes.

“It was something quite bold of us to introduce e-bikes for the first time as a local authority and … this contract essentially builds on that e-bike legacy we’ve built in Watford.

“This will bring in a new fleet, the balance will be readjusted, so we’ll be looking at 220 new e-bikes and 80 pedal bikes.

“One of the things we did want to secure was offering both types of bikes to make sure that those who didn’t want to pay for the e-bikes still had the option of pedal bikes, and that’s one of the reasons why Beryl has been reviewed as a good supplier for this scheme.”

The aim is for the new fleet of bicycles to be in place by the beginning of April, when the contract extension kicks in.

Peter Taylor, the elected mayor of Watford, said Beryl Bikes are “central to our plans for a cleaner, healthier and less congested Watford” and added: “This is about giving people real, sustainable choices for how they travel, now and well into the future.”

Usually, extending the scheme would have to go through a public procurement process, but an exemption has been granted.

A council report said that it would have been “inappropriate” to re-tender the service given the upcoming local government reorganisation (LGR), which will see Watford Borough Council abolished and replaced by a new unitary council.

The report continued: “Extending the contract offers value for money, as changing suppliers during the LGR transformation period would incur substantial short- and long-term costs and present significant risks for both current and successor authorities.”

The agreed extension has a “rolling break clause” beginning in 2029 to “avoid limiting the future choices of the successor authority”.

Philip Ellis, Beryl’s chief executive officer, said the scheme in Watford had been a “remarkable success” since its 2020 launch and added that their goal has always been to “remove barriers to active travel”. 

ENDS