Carplus

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Transport Secretary Crowns 100,000th Car Club Member

At a special event organised by Carplus, Andrew Adonis welcomed the industry's 100,000th member - Wendy Benstead, a freelance dressmaker - at a car club bay in the London Borough of Lambeth. The event, which took place on November 27th, illustrates the industry's success and highlights the important role played by local authorities in supporting the development of this low-cost, low-impact transport option. There are now 104,045 car club members in the UK, using 2,322 car club vehicles.

Carplus gets a Makeover

We are excited to announce the launch of our new logo and the first phase of the new Carplus website! We have shed our wintery blues and adopted a fresh new look and structure, which reflects the existing car club branding. We hope the changes will ensure visitors find the site easy and enjoyable to use.
Carplus has been operating two websites for some time now, but come Spring we will be celebrating the final phase of our re-launch with their integration.

Celebrate with Us!
To help us celebrate this re-launch and to promote car clubs and car-sharing amongst your members, colleagues and friends, why not link to our new website?
Please contact us if you would like to be added to our links page, or would like a copy of our new logo.

Government Supports Responsible Car Use in LTP 3

We recently released a draft of the policy guidance document, Low Emission Car Clubs for a Healthier Equitable and Sustainable Transport Future. This has since been included in the Department for Transport’s Delivering Sustainable Low Carbon Travel: An Essential Guide for Local Authorities.

The Carplus guide provides a simple breakdown of how multiple key policy objectives, can be realised through the implementation of car clubs, either independently or in association with partner projects, particularly with regard to LTP 3. This is a working document, and we welcome your feedback on it.

Carplus is planning a series of seminars and packages of 1:1 support for local authorities developing car clubs. Further details will be published soon.

Important Dates for your Diary

Wednesday 10th March, 16.00-18.00, Houses of Parliament

A reception will be held at the Houses of Parliament to highlight the benefits and achievements of Britain's car clubs. Attendance at this event will be limited. However, members will be given priority. If you're not a member, you can join today.

Thursday 11th March, City Hall

The following day, on March 11th, the Carplus Annual Conference will take place at City Hall. This will be a full day event.
Look out for more information on the Carplus Events page.

The Carplus Board - New arrivals and fond farewells

Carplus would like to thank Bronwen Fisher, Bruce McArthur and Jillian Anable for their valuable contributions to the development of Carplus, whilst serving on the board. We wish them well in the future.
We are also very excited to welcome Alex Veitch, Alexandra Allen, Chris Lewis, Richard Carmichael and Scott Rosser to the Carplus board, following recent elections at the Carplus AGM.

Responding to your feedback on Membership

Thank you to everyone who responded to the recent Carplus Survey. It was extremely useful to gain your feedback and your appreciation of the resources and services Carplus provides. One of the recurring messages we heard was that the benefits of Carplus membership are not clear and that there is a need to keep the price of joining low.

We strive to make our research, advice and other resources available to all, however, we rely on stakeholder contributions in order to ensure the provision of these resources can continue. In response to feedback we have frozen our membership prices. As a member not only will you be supporting our work, but you will also receive the following benefits:

• Voting rights and an opportunity to stand for board election
• A fortnightly members update with a compilation of the latest news
• A monthly email of the car club growth statistics
• Free (or reduced cost) and priority entry to Carplus events
• Up to 5 hours free site specific support on technical issues
• The car club accreditation scheme to verify credentials of the operators.

In addition to these public resources:

• A quarterly e-newsletter
• Access to on-line guidance documents
• Carplus Annual Survey Report of UK Car Club Members

Membership rates vary between £20, £65 and £200 (inc. VAT). See our website for details.

City Car Club Acquires WhizzGo

City Car Club's acquisition of WhizzGo has now created the UK's largest national network of car club cars across the 14 UK cities. The integration of the two companies has progressed very smoothly and feedback from members has been very positive.

Convert Your Car with Wombat

Wombat Car Club's Convert Your Car model is gaining in popularity with communities wishing to establish their own car club in an easy low cost way. With three more cars established in the last 2 months in different parts of the country, communities that were previously very restricted in accessing the benefits of car clubs are now benefitting from the service provided by Wombat.

Glasgow Welcomes Car Club

Glasgow Car Club is a Community Interest Company which has just launched in Glasgow's West End. It currently has bays in Glasgow Harbour, Kelvingrove, Hillhead and Woodlands Road.

Bradford welcomes City Car Club

City Car Club recently launched a new club in Bradford in partnership with the University and College. A further roll out of cars across the city is planned for Spring 2010.

Streetcar to Launch in Bristol

Spring 2010 will see Streetcar continue to spread their wings outside the South-East with Bristol becoming our 8th city location. Bristol has all the attributes to make a great car club market and we are confident that Bristolians will embrace the Streetcar service.

Community Sector Strengthened

Commonwheels and Option C, both community interest companies have recently joined forces to offer a network of 11 locations including the newly launched Eastleigh Car Club.