Secure bike storage on offer to council tower block tenants

Councillor Donald Alexander, smiling with trees and College Green in the background.
Today’s guest blog is from Councillor Donald Alexander, Cabinet member for Transport and Labour Councillor for Avonmouth and Lawrence Weston.

Work to install 31 bike hangars across 21 of our council housing sites is taking place this month, and we were there to celebrate the first one going in at Waring House in Redcliffe on 4 April.

Bike hangars are covered, lockable pods that take up about the same amount of space as a parked car. The hangars in this project are being placed off-street, within the grounds of the tower blocks.

The bike hangars, which are being funded by the West of England Combined Authority through the Transforming Cities Fund, will offer secure bike storage for 192 people who live in our housing sites and cycle regularly for work, exercise and/or leisure.

We hope being able to store their bikes safely at ground level will encourage more people to use them, so they get all the health and wellbeing benefits from cycling regularly.

Having a convenient place to store their bikes should make it easier to swap out some motorised journeys in favour of cycling, which supports our ambition to boost active travel and reduce congestion and carbon emissions across the city as part of our goal to deliver a carbon neutral and climate resilient city.

Each hangar has secure spaces for six bikes to be stored. The free spaces will be offered to residents from the 21 tower blocks on a first come, first served basis. Individual households can put themselves forward for one space per property.

Posters have gone up across the council tower blocks that are getting the bike hangars, which give more information about how to request a space.

Councillor Donald Alexander (Left) and Councillor Tom Renhard (Right), are pictured with a new cycle hanger in front of Waring House, Bristol.
Councillor Donald Alexander (Left) and Councillor Tom Renhard (Right), are pictured with a new cycle hanger in front of Waring House, Bristol.

Come along to an active travel roadshow

In the coming weeks, our active travel roadshow team will be visiting four tower blocks that are welcoming cycle hangars to help get more of our communities into cycling.

From one-to-one bike training for adults through to borrowing a bike for free, there are plenty of ways our team can help you to discover or rediscover cycling. 

You can also bring your own bike along for a free check up with our Dr Bike mechanic who will be on hand to make sure it’s roadworthy.

There’s no need to book, just pop in to any of the roadshows that are taking place at:

  • Rawnsley House, Easton on Tuesday 18 April from 10.30am to 2.30pm
  • Lansdowne Court, Easton on Wednesday 26 April from 10.30am to 2.30pm
  • Barton House, Lawrence Hill on Wednesday 3 May from 10.30am to 2.30pm
  • Twinnell house, Easton on Wednesday 10 May from 10.30am to 2.30pm

Cycle hangar locations

Councillor Donald Alexander (Left) and Councillor Tom Renhard (Right), are pictured with a new cycle hanger in front of Waring House, Bristol. They are pictured alongside staff of the West of England Combined Authority.

We chose the tower blocks based on whether they have more than 50 flats, the deprivation levels, whether they are near other transport routes and the cycle network, the levels of cycling and car ownership, and whether there is space and demand for the cycle hangars.

The following council housing will have between one and three cycle hangars installed: Waring House, Patterson House, Proctor House, Broughton House, Yeamans House, Ropewalk House, Rawnsley House (Beaumont Terrace and Highett Drive), Twinnell House, Plimsoll House, Croydon House, Lansdowne Court, Longlands House, Beaufort House, Harwood House, Phoenix House, Barton House, Oak House, Willow House, Rowan House, Chestnut House and Redwood House.