I happened to notice Boris in Leicester Square this morning, along with LBC’s Nick Ferrari. Whilst we applaud the work done by Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson, to finally get London a cycle hire scheme, it looks as though a good opportunity for the UK to benefit was missed.

Pashley cycles (Britain’s oldest cycle manufacturer) was overlooked in favour of Canadian firm DeVinci. Pashley said it could have employed up to 20 extra staff at its Stratford-upon-Avon factory if its consortium, Citybyke, had been selected by Transport for London. Instead, TfL awarded the £140 million contract to Serco, who subcontracted orders for 6,000 cycles and 400 docking stations to the Canadian firm.

The company’s sales manager Lee Pillinger said: “The people who asked us to be involved with them as a British solution’ were swept aside when Serco were in the frame. It would have been nice if part of the contract had stipulated a certain amount of British content, to help manufacturers.”

The Paris cycle hire scheme (Velib), uses cycles made by French bicycle company Mercier. Shouldn’t we be supporting British companies right now, or is this another sad reminder that Britain’s industry is not what it used to be?