Dumfries bike hire scheme costs £60 per rental

The cost of the scheme translates to more than £60 per rental

The cost of a bike hire scheme in Dumfries works out at more than £60 per rental, new figures show.

The £155,000 Bike2Go project was the first of its kind in Scotland and it was hoped it could go into other areas.

However, Dumfries and Galloway Council is not including the scheme in a planned regional rollout of initiatives to reduce car journeys.

Since its launch in September 2010 the bikes have been hired 2,270 times - a daily average of about two rentals.

The scheme was set up to encourage people to get "out of their cars and onto their bicycles".

It provides bikes free of charge to subscribers at 11 locations across the town.

It is based on similar schemes in Paris, Barcelona, Stockholm and one in London which clocked up one million journeys in its first 10 weeks.

The Dumfries project has struggled to increase rental levels since it started.

Marketing campaign

After 10 weeks they averaged about 20-a-week, with winter weather being blamed for the low uptake.

The council promised a marketing campaign to encourage increased use of the bikes.

A poor summer was again blamed for low uptake in 2012.

Plans were then proposed to make the bikes available to all council staff when on business in Dumfries.

However, some councillors questioned the value of the scheme which has 171 members on latest figures.

One suggested it would have been cheaper to buy them all a bicycle and said the project was "in danger of becoming an embarrassment".