In 2011, PACT received a Cumbria County Council Neighbourhood Forum grant to undertake a study into the feasibility of establishing a car sharing club in Penrith.
Athough there is some interest in such a car club, the report finds that it is not viable to set one up at the moment. It recommends looking at various low-risk alternatives.
- Full report - Feasibility Study to Assess the Viability of a Car Club in the Penrith Area - 10MB PDF
Executive Summary
This report provides an analysis and evaluation of the prospects of establishing a Community Car Club in the Penrith area as a project of PACT. Methods of analysis include research of local and national organisations, trends and available facilities, conversations with existing car club operators and a direct survey of Penrith citizens. Quoted sources can be found in the Bibliography at the end of this report.
Results of the survey show that whilst there is some interest in the idea of a car club along with some intention to participate, a lot more work would need to be done to establish a critical mass of interested and committed citizens to make the operation of a car club viable. This would include a greater number of committed users which would have to be preceded by a more widespread and general campaign to introduce the as yet poorly understood concept of a community car club to the citizens of the Penrith area.
The report finds that the prospects of establishing a commercially viable car club in Penrith with current available resources awareness, business dynamics and franchise options are not good.
However the report identifies several existing low risk existing options which, with a lot less effort, could, if promoted in a coordinated way, go some way to promoting PACT's overall aims at considerably less cost and risk. It concludes that further investigation into these existing alternatives is a possibility and recommends that this might be a better use of the limited time and resources of the group.
The limitations of the Report are recognised, particularly in accordance with the survey sample size, depth of research and limitations imposed by restrictions in revealing commercially sensitive information. However these limitations did not prejudice the outcome of a valid assessment in accordance with the available budget.