Margaret River has become one of the first towns in Western Australia to cancel an e-scooter hire trial, with police saying it is "a serious accident waiting to happen".
The 12-month e-scooter trial with rental company Bird started in March this year but was cancelled after three months.
Local police said riders were opening flouting rules by refusing to wear helmets, or follow speed rules, and were a drain on resources.
Shire of Augusta Margaret River president Paula Cristoffanini said the hire company, Bird, failed to meet the standards.
The shire had given the company 14 days to comply with permit conditions, including restricting use to people over the age of 18, enforcing helmets and limiting scooters to one per person.
"We had a problem with a lot of young people using them," Ms Cristoffanini said.
"I don't know that I've seen a single person using a helmet.
"At the end of the day we were always concerned about safety and that remains our primary concern, to ensure that riders and the community are safe."
'Resources that we don't have'
The e-scooter company had asked local police to help manage the compliance on the e-scooters around town, which was rejected.
Margaret River Sergeant Simone Taplin said it was not something police could resource.
"It's one of those things that just takes up resources that we don't have down here in Margaret River," Sergeant Taplin said.
"People aren't wearing helmets … they're putting our community at risk but then as soon as you try and stop them, they scoot off," she said.
"We're not going to chase an e-scooter through the streets."
Sergeant Taplin said since the e-scooter trial started they had received an increase in complaints.
"Riders are generally young kids, and they do burnouts or ride down the road and almost knock over elderly people or almost collide with cars," she said.
"It's just a serious accident waiting to happen."
Several e-scooter companies operate in multiple regional town centres, as well as in Perth.
In Geraldton a 25-year-old man was flown to Perth with head injuries after his e-scooter collided with a car at a roundabout earlier this year.
In 2021 the WA government legislated rules for e-rideables since the explosion in popularity.
The law requires riders to be over the age of 16, wear a helmet and be subject to the same drink and drug driving laws as motor vehicle drivers.
The legislation also limited the speed limit of e-rideables to 25 kilometres per hour and 10kph on local roads and footpaths.
Bird has been contacted for comment.
