Calls to suspend controversial Voi e-scooter trials in Northampton pushed back

A Northamptonshire council has been accused of pushing concerns about e-scooters “into the long grass” after a motion to halt any extensions of trials in the area was shot down.

Councillor Emma Roberts called for West Northamptonshire Council to recognise the dangers the e-scooters caused in the county and to reevaluate the scheme before it renews.

Despite some general agreement from the council in a meeting on Thursday, September 28, that there was something “fundamentally wrong” with the Voi trial, the matter was sent to scrutiny to be assessed at a later date.

Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Roberts, who represents Delapre and Rushmere for the Labour Party, said: “I genuinely believe that now is the time that we must do something about the scooter trials in Northampton. We’ve seen significant injury, significant waste, and significant damage.

“I’m hugely disappointed that that’s the decision you’ve chosen to make tonight because you could absolutely rubber stamp us to start work on this today. This is you not wanting to say that we have got this wrong.”

The current trial of Voi e-scooters is set to run until May 2024, after it was launched in 2020 and received repeated extensions from the council.

Since the scheme began, two people have died in West Northants due to incidents involving the scooters, and others have suffered injuries. Nationally, reported crashes and casualties involving e-scooters have risen each year across the 30 areas where the trials are taking place.

Other concerns that the opposition raised were the policing of underage and drink-driver users, poor parking of e-scooters on public pathways, and the effectiveness of Voi’s complaints procedure and their ability to identify who is riding their scooters at any given time. Voi was previously fined £726 after failing to hand over information to Northamptonshire Police in January 2023.

Councillor Phil Larratt, cabinet member for environment, transport, highways and waste, said: “I do feel that there’s a lot of merit in what has been said tonight, but I think it’s a very difficult matter. There’s obviously something fundamentally wrong. Let’s have scrutiny look at it and see how this goes forward.”

However, some of the council disagreed with the decision to put the issue to scrutiny and felt that it should have been addressed in the meeting.

Labour councillor Zoe Smith said: “This is a full council chamber. We cannot keep dodging questions that we don’t want to answer by sending them off to scrutiny. It’s cowardly – let’s be openly and publicly accountable in this chamber.”

Leader of the Independent Group, councillor Ian McCord also echoed concerns over resigning the issue to the scrutiny board.

He said: “It’s wrong that you’re trying to use scrutiny to make decisions when it’s not a decision-making body. All it can do is refer things back with some recommendations. Having listened to the debates I don’t see that there is anything in this motion that’s not sensible.”

Despite some resistance, the council passed the motion for the e-scooter issue to be re-examined by a scrutiny board. They are to come back with recommendations in early 2024, before the Voi contract ends in May.