Lime bikes on a Wandsworth Street
(Picture: Wandsworth Council)A London council has vowed to remove Lime e-bikes blocking its streets by Friday if the company doesn’t remove them first.
The leader of Wandsworth Council, Cllr Simon Hogg, issued an ultimatum to the company to “urgently” take action by Friday or face them being removed by officials.
The demand comes after residents complained of them being abandoned in the streets.
In a letter to Lime’s CEO Wayne Ting, Cllr Hogg said the council had not agreed to the deployment of bikes in the borough, and the bikes were blocking busy roads near rail and Tube stations.
“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,” he said.
He urged the company to take action to “ensure your customers are using your bikes responsibly” and “provide stronger messages to riders and greater penalties for those who leave bikes in poor locations.”
If they do not, the bikes will be seized by Friday. “We would prefer not to take this action,” he said. “However, we will not hesitate to do so – unless Lime takes immediate steps to operate in a more responsible way.”
Hal Stevenson, Senior Public Affairs Manager at Lime, said: “We understand the importance of not obstructing pavements and other shared spaces, particularly for those with access needs.
“Though we have never deployed Lime bikes in Wandsworth, we are currently seeing high numbers of vehicles ridden into the borough by users as demand for sustainable and active transport grows.”
Mr Stevenson said it had introduced GPS-based no parking zones, and a 50% increase in teams retrieving obstructive vehicles even faster among other measures.
“We are focused on working with the Council to further improve user parking in the borough through these policies ahead of the launch of dedicated parking spaces for shared e-bikes, which will provide a long term solution to these issues,” he said.
