Vandalism blamed for bike hire scheme scale back

Last month it was revealed over half the bikes in the hire scheme needed repair

A cycle hire scheme is being scaled back after a spate of vandalism took most bikes off the road.

About 800 of the 1,000 bikes on the Bee Bikes network in Greater Manchester are currently damaged or missing.

Over 1,000 bike stands in the region will temporarily close to bring bikes back to areas they are most used.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said transport bosses will build the service "back up in a manageable way".

"Some docking stations are being temporarily suspended, but that's necessary to bring bikes back to the places where they're most used," he said.

Adding the suspended docking stations were in areas which had "very few rides per day".

Over 1,000 bike stands in the region will temporarily close

Earlier this year, a spike in vandalism resulted in a backlog of Bee Bike repairs leaving the 64,350 active users struggling to find bicycles in the city, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Last month it was revealed more than half the bikes offered in the region's hire scheme were in need of repair.

Beryl chief executive officer Phil Ellis the scheme had suffered "quite heavy damage" over a short period of time which had led to not enough bikes available and said the company was working with Greater Manchester Police to recover missing bikes.

Mr Burnham, who urged users to "look after" the bikes, said the cost of repairs is being shared by operator Beryl and Transport for Greater Manchester, but the bill for the taxpayer was "not significant".

Andy Burnham said the bikes would be placed in areas where they are most used

"It's not a case of use it or lose it, it's a case of just look after it," he said.

TfGM said new locking rules and heavier fines when bikes were not returned properly will be introduced.

The Bee Bikes scheme was launched in 2021 three years after Chinese bike sharing firm Mobike pulled out of Manchester after it lost 10% of its cycles each month to theft and vandalism.

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