Now Plaid tells voters to get on their bikes

Mar 26 2008 by David Williamson, Western Mail

PLAID CYMRU yesterday moved to seize the green initiative ahead of May’s council elections, by unveiling proposals to run bike- share schemes throughout the country and turn publicly-owned land into communal allotments.

The bicycle policy is inspired by the success of a bike-rental project in Paris which has transformed travel in the city. Since its launch last year it has nearly doubled in size to become a network of 20,600 bicycles.

Anyone can collect a bicycle at one of 1,451 stations across the French capital. The bicycles are free to hire for the first half-hour.

Plaid AM Leanne Wood said, “We want to take public transport back to the future. We’ve recently seen a global revolution in bike-sharing schemes and asked ourselves the question, ‘Why should Wales miss out on this?’”

Both the bicycle-sharing scheme and the proposal to boost the numbers of allotments are intended to improve people’s health and encourage less environmentally damaging lifestyles.

Ms Wood said, “Local food growing can play an important community role in social, environmental and cultural terms.”

The party was inspired by New York’s Green Thumb gardening programme. It helps 20,000 people in some of the city’s poorest areas maintain neighbourhood gardens.

Allan Rees, Welsh representative of the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardens, said demand for vegetable-growing space was high and in need of protection from development. “Our concern is the local authorities are not carrying out their duties and responsibilities.”

Lee Waters, Welsh director of Sustrans, a charity which designs and builds routes for cyclists, welcomed the bike proposals but urged Plaid to launch the project on a major scale.

He said, “Bike hire schemes are long overdue and would really help to improve people’s health and street quality. But they need to be introduced on a large scale with numerous bikes and hire stations to encourage people to use them.”