Monaghan County Council may have to take over a bike rental scheme planned for Inniskeen after it has been shelved for three years. Around three years ago, the Carrickmacross / Castleblayney Municipal District took up an offer of funding which enabled them to purchase bikes to develop a bike rental scheme as a tourism project. 15 bikes, including some electric models, were bought for the Inniskeen area and were intended to run as a "compliment" to the Kavanagh Centre there.
However, when the council set about finding an outside company to take on the running of the project, two interested parties reported back that the public liability insurance to run it was too expensive. Sinn Féin Councillor Noel Keelan recently asked for an update on the situation and was told that no outside company has yet been found to take on the project. Castleblayney / Carrickmacross Municipal District Council was told Monaghan County Council is looking at other options including running the scheme.
"We, as a local authority must support the people who are doing all the small things very well for the tourism product here," Councillor Keelan said, "And, believe it or not, the bike rental scheme is not going to set the world on fire but, it's an additionality to the tourism offering in our county as people are a lot more interested in walking and cycling and we've seen the recent upgrading of the Monaghan Way and we need to promote that and we must do all we can to make sure this bicycle rental scheme is up and running."
