THE Department of Finance has received only one query regarding its cycle-to-work scheme announced in the Budget last year.
The bike scheme, which was heralded as an important green initiative in the emergency October budget, encourages employers to cover the cost of a bicycle up to €1,000. Employers can then claim the cost as a tax-exempt benefit-in-kind, while employees who buy the bike themselves can save tax, PRSI and levies.
With the Department of Finance still finalising the scheme, only one query from a company has been received, and that was from a bicycle supplier.
However, the Green Party's Ciaran Cuffe insisted that there was "huge interest" in the scheme and that hundreds of enquiries had been submitted via the Green Party's 'Bike Scheme' website.
"I think it shows that government and the Department of Finance, in particular, need to be more proactive in promoting this scheme. Maybe, we're dragging interested parties to our own website," he said.
A spokesman for the Department of Finance also stressed that the Government Supplies Agency is currently drafting a tender document with the intention of setting up a countrywide framework of suppliers of bicycles and safety equipment to service this scheme.
When this framework is in place they will then issue a circular setting out how the framework is to be operated. It is envisaged that this framework should be in place before the end of April.
Tokenistic
The Labour Party's Joanna Tuffy labelled the scheme as "tokenistic" and a "cosmetic exercise" by the Greens.
"Really, where the Greens should have put their foot down was over Dublin Bus if they're determined to get people out of their cars and onto public transport. Things like the bike scheme are tokenistic and the fact that there's only been one query shows there's no race to it," she said.
"If the Greens were to concentrate on anywhere, it should be the buses ... they really should have put their foot down on the proposals to cut down on buses. That bike grant is cosmetic in itself. The more you can do to encourage people to cycle, the better, but you really have to put in place other conditions to get more cars off the road first and put people in buses."
More bicycles are stolen in a month than will be provided for in an entire year under the bicycle scheme, said Labour.
AINE KERR
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
Showing posts with label bike scheme. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bike scheme. Show all posts
Monday, 2 March 2009
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Dublin bike scheme billboards threat to drivers
DUBLIN’S “free bike scheme” for its citizens has encountered an unexpected obstacle.
It has emerged that the city council will be liable for accidents caused by the billboards that have been erected on the capital’s streets as part of the scheme, even though the boards are privately owned.
The council has allowed JC Decaux, a French company, to erect 72 advertising panels in exchange for 450 bicycles in a “bikes-for-billboards” scheme. But the panels have been criticised as unsafe by drivers, pedestrians and the National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI).
Unlike usual billboards, the advertising panels are attached to the footpath, with edges finished in steel. Drivers claim they block sightlines and could cause accidents.
Legal advice given last year to Jim Keogan, the city planner, from Terence O’Keeffe, a law agent, states that as the council is responsible for all “repairs and maintenance”, it also becomes “responsible for any public liability issues that arise in those areas in the event of accidents etc, occurring”.
The council asked O’Keeffe for legal advice before a hearing into the bikes-for-billboards scheme last October. In Chicago, a similar scheme is on hold because of questions over public liability.
“It’s all about lawyers. That’s the only hang-up,” Chicago’s mayor, Richard M Daley, said earlier this month.
Ian Lumley of An Taisce, said: “It is bizarre that the local authority may be carrying the can of legal responsibility for units belonging to a private developer.”
Lumley’s criticism is echoed by former Lord Mayor and Labour councillor Dermot Lacey, who is calling for the scheme to be “immediately suspended”. Lacey said that it would be “completely, totally, and utterly unacceptable” for the council to be responsible for private commercial hoardings that are “potentially dangerous” and “visually obtrusive”.
In some instances, such as at Synnott Place on Dorset Street, and at Rathmines, billboards were quickly removed after motorists complained they obscured sightlines.
Des Kenny of the NCBI said: “JC- Decaux was offered assistance \ 18 months ago. We were surprised when the offer was not taken up, as it was made free-of-charge.”
He added: “If the company was already aware that it was not legally responsible for the billboards, did it take as much care in its attention to design and location as it would have otherwise?”
The council will receive no revenue from the advertising or rental of the advertising spaces, but 32 panels will carry civic information on one side. However, there is still no sign of the promised bikes. The council said this weekend that they are due to arrive next spring. It has yet to disclose how much it will cost Dubliners to use them.
In other cities where JCDecaux has set up schemes, users pre-register with a credit card, paying about ¤30 a year on top of the charge for using a bicycle. If someone loses a bicycle or fails to return it to a docking station within a set period of time, the replacement cost of a bicycle, about ¤150, is deducted from their credit card.
The company has established schemes in 21 cities, including Paris, Seville, Cordoba, Brussels, Vienna and Lyon.
In Paris, 100,000 people use the 20,000 Velib bikes every day, but vandalism and the cost of spare parts for the bikes cost JCDecaux ¤20.6m in the first half of the year. In the first year, a third of the bikes were damaged or stolen.
Two Velib riders have been killed and the French Cycle Touring Federation said there have been problems with “letting loose hundreds of people who haven’t been on a bike in years”.
Dublin city council said this weekend that its legal department was still examining the issue of public liability over the billboards.
JCDecaux declined to comment.
Sunday Times
www.buckplanning.ie
It has emerged that the city council will be liable for accidents caused by the billboards that have been erected on the capital’s streets as part of the scheme, even though the boards are privately owned.
The council has allowed JC Decaux, a French company, to erect 72 advertising panels in exchange for 450 bicycles in a “bikes-for-billboards” scheme. But the panels have been criticised as unsafe by drivers, pedestrians and the National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI).
Unlike usual billboards, the advertising panels are attached to the footpath, with edges finished in steel. Drivers claim they block sightlines and could cause accidents.
Legal advice given last year to Jim Keogan, the city planner, from Terence O’Keeffe, a law agent, states that as the council is responsible for all “repairs and maintenance”, it also becomes “responsible for any public liability issues that arise in those areas in the event of accidents etc, occurring”.
The council asked O’Keeffe for legal advice before a hearing into the bikes-for-billboards scheme last October. In Chicago, a similar scheme is on hold because of questions over public liability.
“It’s all about lawyers. That’s the only hang-up,” Chicago’s mayor, Richard M Daley, said earlier this month.
Ian Lumley of An Taisce, said: “It is bizarre that the local authority may be carrying the can of legal responsibility for units belonging to a private developer.”
Lumley’s criticism is echoed by former Lord Mayor and Labour councillor Dermot Lacey, who is calling for the scheme to be “immediately suspended”. Lacey said that it would be “completely, totally, and utterly unacceptable” for the council to be responsible for private commercial hoardings that are “potentially dangerous” and “visually obtrusive”.
In some instances, such as at Synnott Place on Dorset Street, and at Rathmines, billboards were quickly removed after motorists complained they obscured sightlines.
Des Kenny of the NCBI said: “JC- Decaux was offered assistance \ 18 months ago. We were surprised when the offer was not taken up, as it was made free-of-charge.”
He added: “If the company was already aware that it was not legally responsible for the billboards, did it take as much care in its attention to design and location as it would have otherwise?”
The council will receive no revenue from the advertising or rental of the advertising spaces, but 32 panels will carry civic information on one side. However, there is still no sign of the promised bikes. The council said this weekend that they are due to arrive next spring. It has yet to disclose how much it will cost Dubliners to use them.
In other cities where JCDecaux has set up schemes, users pre-register with a credit card, paying about ¤30 a year on top of the charge for using a bicycle. If someone loses a bicycle or fails to return it to a docking station within a set period of time, the replacement cost of a bicycle, about ¤150, is deducted from their credit card.
The company has established schemes in 21 cities, including Paris, Seville, Cordoba, Brussels, Vienna and Lyon.
In Paris, 100,000 people use the 20,000 Velib bikes every day, but vandalism and the cost of spare parts for the bikes cost JCDecaux ¤20.6m in the first half of the year. In the first year, a third of the bikes were damaged or stolen.
Two Velib riders have been killed and the French Cycle Touring Federation said there have been problems with “letting loose hundreds of people who haven’t been on a bike in years”.
Dublin city council said this weekend that its legal department was still examining the issue of public liability over the billboards.
JCDecaux declined to comment.
Sunday Times
www.buckplanning.ie
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