Are Pembrokeshire County Council going to concede that its ‘pay as you go’ E-bikes trial scheme for parts of the county, including Tenby - may have to be pushed aside?

The Local Authority admitted this month that E-bikes are currently not available to hire in Haverfordwest due to ‘required repairs’.

This comes after many members of the public have highlighted the amount of bikes they have spotted either discarded away from pick-up/drop-off points; misused or deliberately damaged and dumped since the scheme started back in April

“We will update in due course when they have been returned and are ready to ride,” PCC posted on Facebook, adding that the E-bikes remain available for hire at the other project trial sites of Tenby and Fishguard & Goodwick.

The PCC trial scheme saw a fleet of E-bikes provided for members of the public to use for ‘commuting, leisure and local activities’ - with users, able to collect and leave the bikes at a series of pick-up and drop-off sites around the trial towns of Tenby, Haverfordwest, Fishguard and Goodwick.

However, no sooner as the scheme had been launched, the initiative was already met with scepticism by members of the public, as well as local councillors, after a series of examples of the E-bikes being mis-used, including late night drunk revellers riding them up the middle of streets; and bikes being abandoned in random places.

When the idea was first touted to councillors last year, Tenby Town Council’s Deputy Mayor Cllr Charles Dale told his colleagues that, in principle it was a ‘great idea’ - however, he hoped that it worked out better than in Cardiff, where all the capital city’s bikes appeared to be seemingly stolen or vandalised, leading to the scheme ending.

One visitor to Pembrokeshire who hired one of PCC’s E-bikes for a short journey, whilst they were in Fishguard visiting family from his home in Ireland, described how they were saddled with a bill for over £50 as well as a bike that wouldn’t make it up the county’s steep hills, which locked and could not be restarted!

The visitor received an invoice from Zipp Bikes, who is operating the scheme for PCC, stating that his day’s bike hire had cost him a whopping £57.15, which included a £53.55 parking fee.

Pembrokeshire Council confirmed that the complainant had been refunded the fee, explaining that the auto-lock function on the E-bikes had since been disabled.