New e-bike seizure strategy
Most people, I presume will welcome the new powers the council have given themselves to gather up badly parked e-bikes. I'm sure in the short term that this will have an impact but it perhaps is questionable that it will ultimately solve the problem. The council will have to make the exercise revenue neutral therefore the will need to be a sufficient number of obstructive bikes to be harvested to cover the cost of the time of the enforcement officers, who are presumably redirected from other tasks.
I would assume there is not a dedicated team responsible for this because, if the new measure solves the problem they will have nothing to do. This means that enforcement of this kind will probably only be activated if there are a sufficient number of complaints to justify sending the van out. They are not going to do so for just one or two bikes dotted around the borough.
The end result could be that the problem remains endemic apart from occasional blitzes every few months which the operators can easily cover the cost of.
Next time I spot one I plan to report through the app and try and keep track of if and when it is removed — suggest others do likewise.
Gordon Southwell ● 1d2 Comments