Lime bikes littering the streets impounded by town hall
A town hall has begun impounding Lime hire bikes after it warned the company that it would seize any bikes obstructing pavements or the public.
Earlier this week, Wandsworth council leader, Simon Hogg, wrote to the company’s chief executive to warn that unless swift action was taken to prevent Lime Bikes blocking pavements the council would begin impounding them.
This was followed by a high-level meeting between Cllr Hogg and senior representatives of the company who pledged to heed the council’s warning and take immediate steps to tackle the problem.
Cllr Hogg said: “Early impressions are that our message has started to get through. However, despite some action by Lime, there were still numerous bikes blocking streets in Wandsworth today.
“We hope that our action today spells out our determination to tackle this issue and sends a strong message that Lime must make sure their bikes are parked responsibly in our borough.
“These are early days and we will be actively monitoring the situation to make sure Lime doesn’t let up in its efforts to ensure its customers park their bikes more carefully and considerately.
“We will continue to take action in the coming days and weeks.”
Earlier this week, Hal Stevenson, senior public affairs manager at Lime UK, said: “Although we have never deployed bikes in Wandsworth, we are currently seeing high numbers of vehicles ridden into the borough, as a result of record demand for the service from local residents and visitors.
“To address this we have introduced a number of policies to more effectively manage bikes left in the borough.
“These include GPS-based no-parking zones, mandatory end-trip photos to help review rider parking, an enhanced system of rider education, warnings, fines and bans and a 50 per cent increase in our out-of-warehouse team size to help retrieve obstructive vehicles even faster.”
Lime has been contacted for further comment.
Pictured top: Pavement blocked this morning by Lime bikes in Burr Road, Southfields (Picture: Wandsworth council)
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