A Winchester pay-as-you-go car club which aimed to help cut pollution in the city has quit because it did not make enough money.
WhizzGo, which allowed customers to hire vehicles for £5 an hour, had four cars operating in Winchester.
But in a statement to customers this week, WhizzGo’s managing director, Steve Gregory, said the scheme was not profitable, and was being axed after just six months. “As I’m sure you can appreciate, for any business to operate successfully it must be commercially viable. In WhizzGo’s case, this means having enough people joining our club and using our cars. In the majority of our locations, our cars are very popular and highly successful.
“However, in a minority of our locations the take-up and utilisation of the service has fallen well below expectations. This results in us losing money on the cars in these areas. Unfortunately, our WhizzGo cars in Winchester fall into this category. Since launching we have been unable to attract enough members to make the service commercially viable.”
He added the service would end tomorrow (Friday 31 October 2008), but did not rule out returning to Winchester if demand picked up.
Robert Hutchison, who chairs Winchester Action on Climate Change, said the decision to quit was “disappointing” but added; “All we can say is that they are a business and they have to make a business decision. It could be that it’s an idea that’s a little ahead of its time, and Winchester didn’t have enough people to reach the critical mass of users that were needed, which you might have in larger cities.”
Steve Brine, Winchester’s Prospective Conservative MP said; “This is a crying shame as I know a number of people had worked hard to get WhizzGo to Winchester and they have been very successful elsewhere in the country. At the end of the day however, they are not a charity and if people don’t take up their services they are entitled to make a business decision to go as much as they did to come.
“I am disappointed – but not in the least bit surprised – that once again the Winchester Liberal Democrats have chosen political opportunism to turn this into a stick to beat the Conservative controlled councils with. You would have thought the ‘Liberal’ part would be to allow people to make a free choice and decide if they want to use this service or not. I think once again they have shown their true colours and exposed the fact they are more interested in scoring party political points than standing up for Winchester.
“What we need to do now is examine how Winchester can better manage traffic flow and reduce pollution in the city centre; neither of which is being helped by the blame game being played by local politicians.”
Cllr Keith Wood, city council cabinet member for transport, said it supported WhizzGo by providing free parking spaces for its cars in central Winchester.
He added that officers were weighing up if the authority could use the service, but the firm quit before they could reach a recommendation. He said: “It is a disappointment, as it’s a good scheme, but it clearly takes time to grow enough of a customer’s base. What we want to do now is to see if anyone else wants to start a similar scheme.
WhizzGo charged members an annual fee of £49.50 and then around £5 per hour per car, including insurance and 30 free miles a day.
The firm said all its Winchester customers who wanted a refund on their remaining membership would receive one.