Agenda item - Chairs Communications

3.1         The Chair provided the following communications:

“I’d like to welcome our new Members of the committee; Councillor Deane, Councillor Moonan and Councillor Wares.

I also wish to record our thanks to Councillor Barradell who has sadly had to stand down as a councillor for family reasons.

Maggie’s contribution as Deputy Chair of this committee was hugely valuable and her input will be missed.

Following last year’s Committee approval of future plans for improving and investing in the city’s electric vehicle infrastructure, I am pleased to be able to report that the procurement process has now been completed. 

Over the next 3 years, we will be working with the national company, Charge Your Car, to upgrade and expand our electric vehicle charging points, especially to areas west and east of the city centre.  We will also make them more widely available to drivers from across the region and country by improving and extending the membership arrangements.  This will enable us to provide greater choice and contribute further to local reductions in harmful emissions from transport

We are currently tendering for a company to run the Bikeshare scheme and will be appointing a company in the autumn. The scheme will include a minimum of 430 bikes in around 39 locations and is expected to be operational by the summer of 2017. It is envisaged that in these 39 locations, there will be 15 docking points and there will be 11 priority station locations with 25 docking points and these would be the ones with the highest expected demand. The Bikehub locations will be finalised when the contractor is in place but they will be high density areas where people would find them most convenient; on commuter routes and near transport hubs like stations and they will have consistent coverage over the scheme area. There will be consultation through the traffic regulation order process and any representations as a result of advertising those orders will come back to the committee through the usual process. The council is looking for an operator to present a range options for hiring a bike to enable residents, workers, commuters and visitors to take advantage of a simple, effective and accessible system of travelling around Brighton and Hove by bike”.