'Fix your bike' voucher website crashes as scheme launches in England

Boris Johnson's ambitious plan to get Britons cycling got off to a rocky start as the website offering bicycle repair vouchers crashed at its launch.

As part of the Prime Minister's £2 billion scheme to boost active travel, the Government made some 50,000 Fix Your Bike vouchers available to be used for standard servicing and replacing components.

The website, fixyourbikevoucherscheme.est.org.uk, was due to go live at 11.45pm on Tuesday night. However, efforts to access the site returned only an "Error 404" message.

The scope of the problem quickly became evident as cyclists took to social media to express their disappointment.

The volume of complaints was such that the hashtag #FixYourBikeVoucherScheme became the number one trend on Twitter in the UK within 90 minutes of the site's scheduled launch.

The vouchers were initially due to be available in June, but the Department for Transport (DfT) said last month they would only be released once maintenance shops could handle the expected spike in demand.

The £2 billion investment, announced in February, also includes thousands of miles of new protected cycle lanes, cycle training, making electric bikes more accessible and creating the UK's first zero-emission transport city.

Other measures include strengthening the Highway Code, improving legal protections, increasing lorry safety standards and working with the police and retailers to tackle bike thefts.

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