A CAR club which operates like a motorised equivalent of London’s ‘Boris bikes’ scheme is the fastest-growing of its kind in the south.

Co-Wheels, which was set up in Bournemouth last year, allows people to collect a car from one of a choice of points around the borough.

The user gets into the car via an electronic swipe card and returns it to its space when finished with.

Many club members are those who want to use alternatives to the car but find they cannot do without one completely.

Co-Wheels is a social enterprise which runs car clubs in 27 towns and cities.

Alex Elliott, co-ordinator of Co-wheels in Bournemouth, said: “In the last quarter of 2014 we were the fastest growing Co-Wheels club in the south.”

Extra cars are now being provided at locations including Charminster, Pokesdown, Madeira Road and Gladstone Mews in Boscombe.

“The main feedback we’ve been getting is that there could be more cars in more accessible locations, which is what we’re addressing now,” he said.

Members pay a one-off, £25 joining fee to enrol in the club and get their smart card. After that, charges start at £4.50 an hour, £9 overnight or £27 a day, plus 13p a mile.

Bournemouth’s cars are Toyota Aygo or Yaris hybrids which can be booked online or by phone and should have at least a quarter of a tank of fuel already in them. Drivers use a fuel card to top up if they need to.

Mr Elliott said of the members: “It’s mostly local residents. Students, young professionals, people that don’t have their own cars – or we have quite a few people who are a one-car family who would otherwise be a two-far family.

“We get quite a lot of people who use it for work purposes. It means they don’t have to drive to work in the morning.”

Mr Elliott said: “It was very difficult to start with last spring because no one had heard of the scheme. The cars were going a lot of time without being used.”

But he said the scheme had taken off and was gaining new members. It is part of the Business Travel Network, which encourages businesses to help staff leave their private cars at home.

He said there were plans to promote the scheme further in the spring. “We’re also targeting tourists more this summer and partnering with some hotels, so that people visiting the town can know that they’ve got an option in Bournemouth,” he added.

JOURNALISTS often have to use their cars at short notice for work, so I was interested to try out the Co-Wheels scheme.

I took the Morebus to work and relied on the car club when I needed to go out on jobs during the day.

Equipped with my smart card, I made several bookings of a Yaris parked at Bourne Avenue in Bournemouth town centre, and one of an Aygo parked in the Town Hall annexe nearby.

In all instances except one, I found it was possible to book a car, even at short notice. Only once was there a hitch when the car was not where it should have been, and that was soon resolved by a phone call to the club.

The charges are not negligible. But if Co-wheels membership enabled you to go from being a two-car household to being a single-car one, the scheme would start to look attractive. And so would the prospect of taking an alternative method of transport to work, leaving someone else to worry about the traffic jams.