E-BIKE vouchers will be awarded on a “first-come first-served” basis from now on, after the previous lottery system presented a “potential barrier” to uptake, the Climate Change Minister has said.
The fourth quarterly application window for grants of either £300 (for standard e-bikes) or £600 (e-cargo bikes and adapted e-cycles) will open on Monday 30 October and will remain open until all 260 grants available have been awarded.
Explaining the change at a recent Scrutiny hearing, Climate Change Minister Hilary Jeune said: “We have seen that the potential barrier is this lottery scheme because there were those who were ready to buy an e-bike but were unable to because they didn’t “win” the voucher.”
She continued: “We also did a survey for those who did the lottery in January and April and we found that 55% who did not redeem the vouchers did not because they hadn’t done the research on how much an e-bike actually cost.
“When they got the voucher and went out to buy an e-bike, they found it was too expensive.
“From the next scheme onwards, we will run it on a first-come, first-served basis.”
“[Applicants will] have three months to use a voucher, and then that money goes back into the scheme to be used again.”
Deputy Jeune also revealed that 233 bikes had so far been purchased through the scheme, with vouchers totalling £81,300 redeemed to date.
Feedback showed that Islanders used the bikes for commuting, with 88% of respondents saying their new e-bike had allowed them to reduce their car or van journeys.
A total of £300,000 (from the Climate Emergency Fund) has been allocated to the two-year scheme, which is designed to encourage people to switch from car journeys to this low-emission way of getting around.
Deputy Jeune said: “We will continue to run schemes until the £300,000 has been spent.”
