Lime bikes to be seized in Wandsworth, warns council leader
By Charlotte Lillywhite, Local Democracy Reporter
A council will seize dockless e-bikes blocking the borough’s streets at the end of the week unless the company takes urgent action.
Wandsworth council leader Simon Hogg said people in wheelchairs and with prams had been forced to move into the road to dodge e-bikes plaguing the borough’s pavements.
He has told e-bike hire operator Lime the company’s bikes will be seized by officers on Friday unless it does more to stop them blocking pavements – including slapping greater penalties on riders who dump them irresponsibly and increasing efforts to redistribute them.
There is currently no agreement between Lime and the Labour-run council for the e-bikes to be parked in Wandsworth, but people are riding them into the borough and dumping them as they don’t need docking stations – leading to a flood of complaints to the council.
In a letter to Wayne Ting, chief executive of Lime, Councillor Hogg said e-bikes provided a “convenient and sustainable form of travel” but were “causing unacceptable obstructions” on pavements in Wandsworth.
He said: “Some pavements have been impassable, particularly for wheelchair users and people with buggies and prams, who have had to move into the road in order to pass by.”
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.”
Pictured top: Lime e-bikes in a street in Wandsworth (Picture: Wandsworth council)
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