Beryl has been dropped as the provider of Southampton's e-bike hire scheme.
The bike hire provider in the city is set to be replaced at the end of this month which will “make travel easier for residents", according to a senior councillor.
Beryl has operated the city's teal-coloured hire bikes since October 2022.
Solent Transport, a partnership of councils in Hampshire, Southampton, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, decided to end the contract with Beryl effective June 30.
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Beryl said that bikes and e-bikes in Southampton will remain operational until that date, but will gradually be removed until they are all off-street until midnight next Sunday.
The Echo can reveal that Voi, which operates the city's e-scooter scheme, will replace Beryl's e-bikes.
Cabinet member for environment and transport at Southampton City Council, Cllr Eamonn Keogh, said: “This new contract will allow us to appoint a single operator to the bikes and e-scooters across Southampton.
“That will mean more benefits to users who will no longer be dealing with separate operator companies.
“Voi, who operate the hireable e-scooters in the city, will now be operating the hireable bicycles as well.
“In Southampton, the bikes were introduced a little after the e-scooters and we have not seen quite the same amount of popularity for the bikes as we have for the scooters.
“We are hoping that bringing the bikes under the same operator will also see an increase in uptake from residents.”
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Beryl has stated that all customers with outstanding balances related to payments in it’s payment portal will be refunded.
Customers should receive their balance refund within three to five working days.
For those who have purchased a Minute Bundle, refunds will be calculated based on remaining minutes from the bundle.
For example, if a user has 50 minutes remaining from a 100-minute bundle (£16), they would be refunded £8.
The company has also stated that it had not been removed from the contract because of failure to implement a successful scheme.
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