BOSSES behind a dockless cycle scheme have launched a new tactic in the battle to stop bikes cluttering the city's streets.

YoBikes are now employing a “man with a van” to collect and redistribute its 300-strong fleet of bikes across Southampton.

The driver's sole job will be to pick-up bikes and move them to locations where bikes are needed, or bring them back to base to repair.

YoBike Southampton operations director, Dave Munday, said: "We've had a few problems with bikes in certain locations.

"For example, McDonald's in Portswood where bikes have built up and it's taken a while for us to clear them.

"We've now got a man in Southampton in whose only job every day is to relocate bikes and return them for repairs.

"We can move around 30 bikes a day and if there is a build up of bikes then we hope to be able to clear it within 24 hours.

"It's in our interest to make sure the bikes are available for people to use."

YoBikes' head of business development, Jade Ebenezer, said that the company was committed to a policy of its bikes not taking up more than 50 per cent of space on any given bike rack.

He said that the company had received just five complaints since it launched its smart bike-sharing scheme in Southampton in September this year.

Mr Ebenezer added that the company received no complaints of this nature since the employment of a bike collection driver.

Meanwhile, Mr Munday, who runs Shirley High Street bike shop, The Hub Cycleworks, says there has been more than 15,000 rides in the city since the launch of the scheme.

He admitted however that not all of the bikes, locked and unlocked using a smartphone app, have been used respectfully.

At a council meeting last week, civic chiefs discussed complaints from residents about bikes collecting in city hotspots and taking over already well-used bike racks.

Mr Munday said his team even had to pick up one bike which had been taken to Bournemouth.

He added: "We've had to recover them from various locations, including Bournemouth.

"In that case we tracked it to a location and contacted the person and picked it up."

Despite the initial teething problems, Mr Munday says the smart bike-sharing scheme has been a success.

The bike shop owner hopes to wheel out an electric powered cycle collector in the near future, as well as expanding the operation to more areas of the city.

The company is partnering with Monty's Community Hub in Sholing, who will provide a repair service.

It also plans to deploy a fleet of bikes in the east of the city in the coming months.