Council warns cycle hire operator over discarded e-bikes

Brent Council has told e-bike hire firm Lime to remove its bikes from its streets by 31 October unless it responds to the council’s safety concerns.

There are 750 e-bikes in the borough, which the council originally agreed to as part of efforts to promote sustainable and active travel and reduce pollution.

But the London Borough said it was concerned by the high and increasing number of incidents of inconsiderately parked and abandoned e-bikes and that Lime was often slow to remove these.

Leader Muhammed Butt said: “Unless Lime changes the way it works with us, we are out of road for its activities in Brent.

“Lime bikes left scattered across our streets are causing havoc for other road users, especially for pedestrians and disabled people.

“Residents have gone sour on Lime and the council is receiving repeated, regular complaints about the bikes left across paths and roads in a haphazard way.”

The council has proposed changes to Lime, which included dedicated e-bike parking bays in cordoned-off areas at busy sites such as stations and town centres

A ‘no parking’ restriction would apply elsewhere with any abandoned e-bikes removed by Lime in an agreed time.

Brent also said Lime should ensure inconsiderately parked or abandoned bikes were removed swiftly, “which is not currently the case” and said Lime’s £10 charge for offending users was an insufficient deterrent.

Cllr Butt said: ”To date, Lime has not satisfied our proposals, which we consider vital to ensuring the safe and efficient operation of the scheme in Brent.”

A Lime spokesperson said: “We understand the critical importance of maintaining a safe service and avoiding pavement obstructions and are committed to working with the council to deliver the required improvements to extend our operations here.

“It is possible to move to a mandatory parking model in Brent, but the council needs to install a sufficient number of parking locations for people to park at.

“We need these locations in order to maintain a tidy and easy to use service that can continue to contribute to the council’s active travel goals. We can support this process by providing trip data and infrastructure funding."

Mark Smulian