Car sharing scheme to be launched in Portsmouth
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The partnership between Portsmouth City Council and Enterprise Car Club will begin in the summer, covering the Central Southsea, Eastney and Craneswater, St Jude and St Thomas wards. Two more cars are due to be placed at Lakeside business park in the future. The mobile phone-based system will allow people to borrow cars on either hourly or daily rates with two cars available in each area.
Councillor Lynne Stagg, the council’s cabinet member for transport, said she hoped the scheme would play a part in reducing the number of cars in the city.
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Hide Ad‘I am incredibly excited to be bringing affordable transport options to Portsmouth drivers,’ she said. ‘I hope that the car club will help reduce car ownership in Portsmouth while still offering residents the convenience of being able to make a journey when they need to.
‘This is a key step in making travel in Portsmouth greener, alongside making it easier for people to walk, cycle, catch public transport and hire bikes and rental e-scooters.’
At her decision-making meeting on Thursday (March 23) she will be asked to approve the start of a consultation to designate several on-street parking bays for the cars before final approval is given in June. It is expected that cars would then be available from July.
Work to introduce a car club to the city began in July 2020 with Enterprise winning the tender. It will run alongside the existing car club scheme privately operating at St Mary’s Hospital and Wimbledon Park.
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Hide AdMembership is charged initially at £20 a year and includes a £20 ‘driving credit’. After this, it will be £60 a year. The hire fee starts at £6.70 per hour.
Enterprise Car Club managing director Dan Gursel said the scheme would help reduce air pollution in Portsmouth with membership also giving people access to schemes in other towns and cities across the country.
Cars are due to be made available from bays in Talbot Road, Francis Avenue, Festing Road, Kimberley Road, Craneswater Park, Clarence Road, Kent Road, High Street, Kings Road and Cottage Grove.