Newark Cycles on Baldertongate applauds government's fix your bike scheme offering £50 repair vouchers

A bicycle repair shop in Newark has applauded the government scheme that aims to help cyclists get back on the road.

The fix your bike scheme offered 50,000 £50 repair vouchers, and proved to be more popular than expected, causing the website to crash.

Simon Lile, joint-owner of Newark Cycles, on Baldertongate, said it was an excellent idea.

“If it helps get more bikes out on the road then there is no reason why somebody would say otherwise,” he said.

“It would be nice to now go and invest in the roads, but to get the bikes out and about is a start.”

He said lockdown had seen a massive increase in cyclists out on the road.

“Every bike shop in the country will to you that it has been busier,” he said.

“We sold out of bikes five weeks ago and we are hoping for more to come in today, but that is it then until September.

“We have 53 repair jobs in the system at the minute and it has been like that since March.

“It has been relentless. We have been working 7am to 7pm.

“But this incentive is brilliant, and people with a limited budget can get their bikes repaired safely.”

Newark MP Robert Jenrick, who visited the repair shop on Friday, hoped it would be the start of a cycling boom in the country.

He said: “We have seen with coronavirus that you are much more susceptible to the virus if you are overweight, and so it is important that we all try to be fitter to protect ourselves and also the NHS.

“Newark has a long history of being a cycling town.

“If you go back a generation there were thousands of people cycling to work.

“You don’t see that so much today, but it is a flat town and there are bags of potential to get people cycling again.”

He said the Brompton Bikes proposal — Newark’s version of Boris’ Bikes — could also inspire people to go on slightly longer journeys and enjoy days out on the bike.

Mr Jenrick also suggested the proposal could see less people driving to work.

“We are a town with very bad traffic problems and people cycling to work, or to the shops, that would make everyone’s life better,” he said.

Mr Jenrick said should the demand continue to exceed supply for the fix your bike scheme, then the scheme could be extended.