Residents who want to know more about plans to bring the Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme to Hammersmith and Fulham are invited to attend a series of information sessions being held in October.

The sessions will be held on:

• Thursday October 4, 12pm-2pm at Hammersmith Lyric Theatre, King Street
• Thursday October 4, 5.30pm-7.30pm at Fulham Library, 598 Fulham Road
• Saturday October 6,10am-2pm at Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road

Mayor Boris Johnson asked Transport for London to prepare plans for a westward expansion of the scheme in the boroughs of Wandsworth, Hammersmith & Fulham, Lambeth and Kensington & Chelsea last year.

Since then TfL has been working with the boroughs to identify more than 200 suitable locations for docking stations and to develop the design and layout of the proposed expanded area.

The Mayor has also confirmed that the scheme will launch late next year, with all new docking stations to  be in place by spring 2014.

He says: " Every Londoner should be able to take advantage of our hugely popular and iconic Barclays Cycle Hire scheme which has already brought untold benefits to London's commuters, businesses and visitors alike. "

Earlieer this month, Hammersmith and Fulham Council's Cabinet agreed at a meeting this week to authorise Cllr Victoria Brocklebank-Fowler, the Cabinet Member for Transport and Technical Services to enter into an agreement with Transport for London to extend the cycle hire scheme throughout the borough.

TfL aim to provide a docking station every 300-400 metres, and are looking to provide 60-70 stations in the borough.

In order to facilitate efficient servicing, they stipulate that each station should have spaces for a minimum of 25 bicycles.

Maps accompanying the report show that provisional locations either approved or being considered by the council include sites on the edge of our main parks, including Brook Green and Ravenscourt Park in Hammersmith and South and Bishops Parks, Eel Brook Common and Parsons Green in Fulham, plus sites close to the borough's main roads and by the riverside.

The report says that possible sites suggested by the public, TfL officers and Council officers have been evaluated against a range of criteria, including the effects on car parking, trees, crime prevention, waste, highways, arks, heritage and conservation and planning, with several sites eliminated where there are fundamental objections on one or more of these grounds.

Sites which have survived this process are being designed in detail to TfL, who intend to hold a series of public exhibitions in the borough this autumn to get the views of the public.

To implement Phase 3, TfL require a contribution of £2 million from the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and the council cabinet agreed at the meeting that the most appropriate source of funding is contributions from developers, either through Section 106 agreements or the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).

The council says high levels of cycling are necessary to enable large scale developments to take place without putting undue strain on the highway and public transport networks, and the Cycle Hire Scheme is an appropriate way of encouraging and facilitating cycling.

The report adds that officers have been negotiating with developers on the provision of
funding for the cycle hire scheme since the extension was mooted by TfL in the summer of 011. These developers are likely to include St George, the developer behind Imperial Wharf, Chelsea Creek and Fulham Reach and Barratt who are developing Fulham Wharf.

Docking stations have already been installed around the Westfield Centre in Shepherd's Bush as part of Phase 2 of the project, with Westfield covering the cost.

TfL's Managing Director of Surface Transport, Leon Daniels, said: "These plans build on the huge success of Barclays Cycle Hire which has been immensely popular this summer with record number of people using the scheme during the London 2012 Games

."There is huge appetite for the scheme in west and south west London and bringing Barclays Cycle Hire to those areas will make public transport more accessible in those communities."