Thousands of residents across the London Borough of Camden are in the queue waiting for secure on-street cycle storage, according to a council report.
“There is currently a high demand for cycle hangar spaces in Camden with over 7,000 current waiting list requests for existing hangars in the borough,” states a decision document detailing the award of a contract for the delivery and maintenance of secure cycle storage.
Camden Council recognises that a lack of secure cycle parking “is a barrier to people cycling” and says that the provision of bike hangars will “help encourage transport modal shift towards” cycling in the borough.
Following a tender process, Camden has awarded CycleHoop Ltd a contract to supply and maintain its distinctive bike hangars for an initial three-year term with a potential to extend for a further two years, subject to good performance.
The contract has an estimated value of £2,081,100 over five years, and also includes the installation of secure storage for cargo bikes.
“The supply and installation of the new cycle hangars will be part funded from the transport capital programme, other funding from Local Community Infrastructure Levy (LCIL), Council Capital Healthy Street funding and TfL Local Implementation Plan (LIP) grant,” states the report.
Funding could also come from the District Management Committee (DMC) funding to cover the cost of hangars on Camden’s council housing estates, as well as from Section 106 funding under planning gain secured from property development in the borough.
The cost of ongoing management and maintenance of the hangars will be funded from the income that CycleHoop generates from users so there will be no revenue costs to the council. Prices to rent a space are currently £36 a year.
“If the management and maintenance were to be brought in-house in the future, users would pay the council for the service,” states the report.
CycleHoop Ltd has previously held a contract to deliver cycle storage in Camden. The hangers can securely store up to six cycles, and two hangars can fit in a single on-street car parking space.
The 7,000 people on the waiting list is an improvement on two years ago when there were over 9,000 residents in the queue.
In 2023 Camden said it had installed 237 bike hangars as of March that year across the borough and that there was a growing demand from residents living in high density dwellings which have limited space for covered and secure cycle parking.
“Waiting list data provided by Cyclehoop and Falco (the council’s previous cycle hangar supplier) indicates that the majority of the 237 hangars installed in the borough, so far, are fully occupied with a combined waiting list of 9,219 people. The implementation of a hangar in an area usually increases the number of requests in that locality, such is the demand for bike hangar parking,” stated the 2023 report.
Camden says there are now around 300 bike hangars on streets across the borough, “providing 1,800 covered, secure, and fully enclosed bike parking spaces for residents”. With the current demand, a further 1,200 hangars need to be provided.
Residents in Camden can join the waiting list and apply for a bike hangar space from the CycleHoop website, and from Camden Council’s website.
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