Lime bikes outside Choosing Keeping

By FINN LOGUE

THE owner of an independent stationery shop has said she’s been made to feel like an “enemy” of Camden Council after a long-running dispute over an e-bike parking bay.

Julia Jeuvell, the owner of Choosing Keeping in Tower Street, Covent Garden, said that over the past three years she had tried to report several problems caused by the dockless e-bike bay outside her shop.

She said that its introduction led to “exacerbated sense of insecurity” and a sharp rise in anti-social behaviour and drug-dealing.

Ms Jeuvell said the overflow of dumped bikes strewn across the pavement and road also blocks crossings and important access routes.

Ms Jeuvell said: “I think that the councillors, and Labour government, like to cosy up to tech companies like Lime. They show a general disdain for small businesses like ours.

“It’s like we are something on their shoe that they are trying to put to the side. We are told that things are being done, but basically nothing has been done since the problem started in 2023.”

In May 2025, Camden Council agreed to extend contracts with e-bike firms Lime and Forest for another year, citing the “significant and growing” number of residents who use the bikes across the borough as their reasoning.

The e-bike parking bay outside Choosing Keeping has been out of service since January while public realm works take place on the street.

Ms Jeuvell said just as when it first appeared there had been no consultation from either the council or Lime themselves on when it would be returned – and she felt she had been “ghosted” by Lime.

She had made a deputation to the Town Hall environmental scrutiny meeting on January 12.

This was the same meeting that Labour ward councillor Awale Olad told a senior representative from Lime the company was “terrible, mendacious and irresponsible” and said that they should not be operating in London.

This was his personal view and not that of the ruling Labour group which has sought to work with operators and says it values the service they provide.

On the issue of blocked pavements, Camden has threatened to seize bikes dumped in the wrong place and fine the firms.

Ms Jeuvell said: “If they [Lime] are so mendacious, then why do the council continue working with them?”

Choosing Keeping, which sells a curated selection of stationery from across the globe, first opened on Columbia Road in 2012 but moved to the Seven Dials area of Covent Garden in 2018.

A spokesperson for Lime said: “We recognise that there are challenges posed by the lack of parking in Central London. We never want our bikes to get in anyone’s way. There is a clear need for more designated parking locations to meet the growing demand for our bikes, and our priority is working with Camden Council to help make this happen.

“Last year, through our London Action Plan, we helped fund more than 1,100 new e-bike parking bays across London, a 47% increase since the year prior. This brings the total number of bays we’ve helped create in London to more than 3,400, including the latest phase of new parking bays in Camden.”

A Camden Council spokesperson said: “The council is developing plans to move the bay and will consult on this as soon as possible.”