Bike hire scheme proposed for Athlone

A plan to introduce a bike hire scheme in Athlone for the 2022 tourist season is currently being considered by the Environment Section of Westmeath County Council.

A call for the introduction of such a scheme was made at the November meeting of Athlone Moate Municipal District this week in a motion tabled by Cllr Frankie Keena, who received the unanimous backing of his fellow councillors for the new service.

The Council’s Director of Services, Barry Kehoe, told the meeting that there are “two elements” to the proposed bike hire scheme. The first is a public bike hire scheme, similar to Dublin bikes, where bike users would take a bike from one location in Athlone and return it to another location. The second element would enable visitors to Athlone to hire a bike from a designated hire shop for leisure purposes such as cycling the greenway.

“Both of these aspects are being looked at,” said Mr. Kehoe, who added that he would be “hopeful” that both schemes could be up and running for the 2022 tourist season.

In his motion, Cllr Keena described the bike hire scheme as a “no brainer” for a town like Athlone which has a university, a vibrant tourist offering including a greenway, and a large number of schools.

“Am I being off the wall by suggesting that we could have this bike hire scheme in operation in time for the 2022 tourist season?” asked Cllr Keena.

Cllr John Dolan strongly supported Cllr Keena’s motion and said Athlone has “a very poor bike offering” for tourists “unless they bring their own bikes” and this needs to be rectified as soon as possible.

The debate about a bike hire scheme for Athlone took place against the backdrop of the implementation of a pilot bike hire scheme in Mullingar, which is due to become operational during the Fleadh Cheoil in August of next year.

However, Cllr John Dolan said Athlone should be braver than Mullingar and should implement a bike hire scheme in full, without the need for trialling a pilot scheme first.

Describing the bike hire scheme as “one of the missing links” in the tourist offering for Athlone, Cllr Dolan said the council had received a detailed presentation on the subject of bike hire some time ago and “nothing was done.”

“After all the money we spent on the greenway, it doesn’t make sense to provide the facilities for cycling, but not provide the bikes,” he added.

Barry Kehoe said he was hopeful that when the pilot bike hire scheme in Mullingar goes to tender “we can do the same for Athlone” but he added that it was “certainly not the intention” of the council to provide bikes and hire them out to people.

He said the public bike hire scheme for Athlone is being considered by the Environment Section of Westmeath County Council, while the leisure scheme is receiving attention in the Tourism and Local Enterprise Office.