Councillor Awale Olad criticised the hire bike company on Monday night

THE Lime hire bike company has found itself on the receiving end of a furious broadside by one of Camden’s longest-serving councillors.

The face-to-face blast across the Town Hall desks saw Awale Olad leave no room for doubt about his feelings towards the firm, whose green and white bikes have become a ubiquitous feature on London’s streets.

Amid frustration over dumped vehicles and overflowing parking bays, he told one of its top members of staff that “you are not even a well-liked brand among your own users”, adding that he had concluded Lime was “a terrible, mendacious, incompetent, irresponsible company that should no longer be operating in London”.

His comments came at the cross-party environment scrutiny committee on Monday evening, after hire bike representatives were called in to discuss performance.

Over the past two years there have been repeated complaints about bikes obstructing pavements and walkways, and parking bays so full that users simply add to the mess by dropping them off nearby.

In response, Lime has pledged to tackle the problem, but celebrated the growing popularity of its service, with millions of rides through the borough a year.

The *New Journal* reported last year how Jesus of Nazareth actor Robert Powell had sent 570 photos to the council as bikes piled up near his home in Highgate.

The issue is also reported to be acute in Holborn and Covent Garden in the south of the borough – Cllr Olad’s ward – as users nip into the West End.

There are also complaints about drug dealers and their customers gathering around bays and using the bikes.

Cllr Olad said sometimes half his casework from residents and businesses was people complaining about Lime.

“Can we go just for one day where I’m not emailed about Lime bikes being dumped?,” he said. “Is this possible?”

His angry criticism – footage of which was being shared rapidly on the internet this – will not only have frustrated Lime, but also some of his colleagues on the Labour group running Camden.

Many councillors are regular users of Lime, know many of their constituents value it as a transport option and want to work with the company to resolve the issue of dumped bikes.

Cllr Olad believes the company has had long enough to do this and its representatives have been before his panel before to hear complaints about how narrow pavements can be hard to get down for people with buggies and shopping, or using wheelchairs, when clusters of Lime bikes limit the space.

He made clear his comments were his personal opinion, but he sits as the chair of the committee which makes recommendations on policy to the rest of the council.

The session came with neighbouring Islington thought to be close to ending its contract with Lime due to concerns over a lack of action on bad bike parking.

Hounslow in the west of London has already blocked the company.

Even councillors who are in favour of dockless bikes for health and environmental benefits harbour concerns.

West Hampstead councillor Sharon Hardwick told the meeting that she could not understand why the company’s technology could not read patterns of where they were being regularly dumped.

Bloomsbury councillor Rishi Madlani warned of a build-up of bikes in Malet Street, close to university buildings.

Hampstead councillor Stephen Stark suggested there should be officers in each council ward for the public to contact with their concerns.

And Belsize councillor Matthew Kirk said the noise from early morning servicing was “entirely unacceptable”.

The Human Forest hire firm was also at the meeting.

But the most tense exchange came between Cllr Olad and Jack McKenna, Lime’s public affairs manager – with the councillor repeatedly exclaiming: “Lime is the problem.”

Mr McKenna repeatedly promised to look into any localised issues and said they would be responded to by the end of the week.

But he drew a distinction between opinions and individual experiences, and official statistics which he said showed the company had improved its operations in the borough.

He urged Cllr Olad to work with him, as he said he had done with the City of London authority to manage parking bays close to Hampstead Heath.

Camden has begun impounding Lime bikes and issuing financial penalties when they are found left in the wrong place.

But Mr McKenna said that, although it had been costly for the company, this had led to better communication about problem spots.

He said: “There’s always room for improvement, but I think in the last 12 months we have delivered tangible evidence of improvements, particularly in the south and south of the Euston Road by the metrics we’ve reported and officers have requested. For example, the number of vehicles we are moving, the number of staff that we have on the street and the response times for those staff addressing issues.”

He added: “We have unequivocally improved. In the last 12 months we’ve spent millions of pounds in Camden on staffing, technology and infrastructure to deliver those improvements.”

In response to Cllr Olad’s unfavourable list of descriptions for Lime, he said: “I think your residents disagree because more of them rely on our service every month.

“Many members of this committee also do. I respect your right to hold the views you do, but it doesn’t help us fix some of the problems. It doesn’t help us deliver.”

Cllr Olad is stepping down at May’s council elections, ending too his long stewardship of the scrutiny committee.