'Northampton's e-scooter trial needs more time to see if we can make it work,' says Councillor

The councillor in charge of Northampton's rentable electric scooters is pleading with the public to give the scheme more time to succeed before writing it off.

But Cllr Jason Smithers pledged he will pull the plug on the 12-month trial if issues continue.

Police were out in force in the town centre at the weekend as part of a planned crackdown and tackled 58 e-scooter users either in pedestrianised areas, riding with more than one on board and ignoring traffic signs.

Blind and partially sighted charities have warned of dangers posed by scooters being dumped in the streets and a four-year-old girl was left in tears after being hit by an e-scooter rider in Abington Street on Saturday.

But Cllr Smithers, Cabinet Member for Highways and Place, said: "We've got emails from people saying they have not needed to use public transport or get in their vehicles — and that's exactly the sort of thing we want to promote in Northampton.

"We've had 60,000 rides in last three weeks and if people can get to work or go to the shops without using a motor vehicle it's good for the environment and restricting spread of Covid.

"We're getting messages good and bad. It's not even been on the streets for a month yet so lets give it an opportunity to bed in. If it doesn't work and becomes a real issue then we will scrap it.

"This is about giving something to residents of Northampton and if it doesn't work we will scrap the programme."

Nearby Coventry halted its own e-scooter trial after just five days but Northamptonshire County Council is sticking to its guns and promise a number of improvements to the scheme in the pipeline.

Cllr Smithers admitted he will "robustly challenge" operators Voi about the issues in Northampton during a meeting this week.

The Swedish company launched its trial in Northampton earlier this month aiming to provide a cleaner mode of transport for short journeys. The scooters are rented via a smartphone app but users need at least a provisional driving licence.

Cllr Smithers added: "This weekend was part of an ongoing operation with the police to target e-scooter users because we want to get the message out there that these are not toys.

"These are classed as road vehicles so the same rules apply. If you are a parent and you're letting your children out on one of these scooters you risk being prosecuted and having points put on your licence.

"It's an educational process to get people to understand they are for the road, they're not for footpath.

"People shouldn't be leaving scooters on footpaths, they should be going to parking zones. We have scooter docks on the way to us so people can put them into docks rather than leave them on footpaths.

"I get the argument about tipped-over scooters on footpaths being a danger to partially sighted and we are working with Voi to add a warning sound, a tone that when the scooter is over it releases a tone to alert people. It also sends a message back to the command centre and our scooter ambassdors will come and find it.

"Putting registration plates on scooters is being rolled out this week so if people see anything wrong they can report it to Voi who will be able to see who was on that scooter at that time and block them from the service.

"We need to get hard with blocking people that are misusing them. For every 100 rides you might get one or two that do misuse them but we need to keep the scheme going and address the issues.

"We get as many complaints about people on e-bikes going down pedestrian footpaths and we have no control over that. With these Voi scooters we do have an element of control and we can police it better.

"If it doesn't work and problems continue then we will have no issue pulling the scheme. But we want to give it a good try and explore every avenue to ensure that we can get this to work."