AN ENGLISHMAN’S car may be his mobile castle, but faced with congestion charges, fuel price rises, road tolls and the blame for greenhouse gas pollution, many drivers are rethinking the cost of running a car.

The answer could be to join a car club. Carplus, a charity formed to encourage transport alternatives, says that car clubs are being transformed from small-scale co-operatives run by green activists into commercial operations that can cut members’ transport costs by half.

Typically, car club members pay a joining fee of about £25 and can hire a car, parked within five minutes’ walk, by the hour for £4 to £5, including petrol, maintenance, insurance, repairs, breakdown and recovery.

A recent survey by the RAC showed that the average motorist spends £5,335 a year on buying and maintaining a car, but estimates the cost at just £2,100. As cars in private ownership are, on average, driven for less than an hour a day, it is easy to see how drivers can save money.

The clubs are most successful in America and on the Continent — Switzerland has 58,000 car club users. There are about 25 car clubs in the UK, in cities such as Edinburgh, Leeds, Bristol, Swansea and London. The UK’s latest car club, launched last month by WhizzGo in Leeds, is moving up a gear. Until now, the Edinburgh car club, run by Smart Moves and subsidised by the city council, was the biggest, with 20 cars and 350 members after six years. WhizzGo, which is privately financed, plans to roll out 100 cars in Leeds, serving 2,500 members over 18 months.

Charlotte Morton, managing director of WhizzGo, which has a ten-year contract to run the city’s car club in co-operation with Leeds City Council and the West Yorkshire Transport Authority, says: “Our members in Leeds will also be able to get discounts on public transport.

“Our service will appeal to business people who travel to work by public transport and then need a car to meet clients. It will also appeal to parents on the school and shopping run, to people who don’t want to buy a second car and to cyclists and others who use public transport but occasionally need a car.”

The bonus for the environmentally aware motorist, according to Carplus, is that membership dramatically reduces the number of cars on our congested roads. Members tend to complement their car usage with increased use of public transport.

Michael Blake, a 54-year-old tax consultant from Slaithwaite, Yorkshire, estimates that joining his local car club, Our Car Your Car, saves him up to £5,000 a year because he no longer has to run a second car. “When I joined, I surprised myself by using it much more than I thought,” he says. “I probably use it about once a week to meet clients. I also get more exercise. While my wife uses our own car, I walk my son, Freddie, to school every morning on the way to my office.”

Carplus: 0113 2349299, www.carclubs.org.uk; WhizzGo: 0870 4466000, www.WhizzGo.co.uk;

Smart Moves: 0845 3300333; www.smartmoves.co.uk; Edinburgh City Car: 0845 3301234, www.edinburghcitycarclub.co.uk;

Our Car Your Car, Huddersfield: ourcaryourcar@btconnect.com; City-Wheels, Swansea: www.city-wheels.co.uk; Streetcar, Wandsworth, South London: 0845 6448476, www.mystreetcar.co.uk.