Lime bikes pile up in Euston Road [Simon Lamrock]

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THE Town Hall says it will start “impounding” hire bikes left blocking pavements and walkways.

The trial scheme was announced on Monday as Camden prepares to hand two companies, Lime and Human Forest, an extension on their current deals.

Council chiefs said that a 90 per cent compliance rate on parking had to improve after regular complaints about users dumping them outside agreed bays.

Representatives from both companies took questions from councillors at a scrutiny committee meeting on Monday.

Labour councillor Sharon Hardwick said: “I’ve been counting them – there’s eight in my road and it’s a narrow street,” adding that she was cross that Camden was funding makeshift barriers.

“Your business is making life a nightmare in certain parts of the borough,” she said.

Her West Hampstead ward colleague Councillor Shiva Tiwari also dived into the debate, adding: “I think it’s really terrible that we have a 90 per cent compliance rate. I see it visibly where I live which is why I am so viscerally anti-supportive of any continued extension of these contracts full stop because they are always strewn all over the place.

“Set the target at 100 per cent, or 99 per cent, or at a level where it’s not 1 in 10 bikes strewn on the streets getting in the way of mothers with pushchairs or disabled people.

“Impounding bikes, I welcome that – but I think we should be levying much stronger fines on two companies that effectively have a monopoly London wide.”

Labour councillor Shiva Tiwari

Environment chief Councillor Adam Harrison said he recognised the problem, particularly in areas like around Euston station and gave details of the impounding trial.

But he said that hire bikes were worth supporting as a greener form of transport and that they had proved popular.

Three million trips a year in Camden were recored last year.

Cllr Tiwari said that popularity should not be the guide, telling the meeting that children found vapes popular but they would still be banned for the underaged.

Cllr Harrison said: “We should be giving people a choice about how they travel around the borough. There are places in the borough where there is never going to be a good overground connections or bus routes, and it can be very very handy to pick up a bike or a scooter to get to places the others don’t reach. Being able to share bikes unlocks that form of transport.”

Jack McKenna, Lime’s public affairs manager, said: “We fully acknowledge that compliance on the streets has not been good enough.”

But he added that there were now 28 members of staff working the borough every day and that the numbers of bikes moved by them had “more than doubled”.

“We are listening very carefully,” he told members and said that if councillors had specific areas to target then “resources would not be a problem.”

Alex Berwin, head of policy at Human Forest, said: “We are absolutely striving for 100 per cent compliance, but as we know in this world from parking tickets and speed cameras. we are always going to have people who misuse the service.

“We take it very seriously and have a fining and banning process.”

Both companies said that they were contributing to infrastructure costs towards new bays.

‘Legal cases over safety’

LAWYERS are preparing personal injury claims against Lime in two separate cases, the committee was told, as questions over safety were raised.

Liberal Democrat Matthew Kirk said he was aware Camden Town firm Osborne’s were representing riders injured in falls and that he was concerned about a “lot of anecdotal coverage and a lot of press coverage” about a rise in accidents.

He suggested the weight of the bikes lead to “really nasty, multiple breaks” and that scooters seemed unsafe because of the small size of the wheels.

Labour councillor Izzy Lenga (pictured) told how she was still receiving treatment for an injured knee after falling from one of the company’s bikes in December.

“I use Lime,” she said. “It got me back into cycling and I’m grateful for that.”

But she said her fall “was definitely to do with the weight of the bike” and added: “What I realised after I hobbled off was that the tyres were really flat – that was part of the reason I fell off. Now I mention ‘I fell off a Lime’ and I hear ‘me too, me too’.”

Jack McKenna from Lime told the meeting that 99.9 per cent of trips ended without any incident of this kind, although he was unaware of the cases mentioned by Cllr Kirk.

He said the company was monitoring the data and wanted to share more where possible to show how safe the bikes and scooters were for users.