Public safety concerns raised over e-scooters trial

Safety concerns have been raised about the use of e-scooters as part of a trial in four towns in Cornwall.

About 175 vehicles are being piloted across Penzance, Newquay, Falmouth and Truro after the trial was launched in June.

Businesses in Newquay have raised fears over the vehicles being driven too fast and recklessly around parts of the town centre.

Beryl, the company which manages the scooters, said safety restrictions were in place and they had not had any real issues since they launched.

Mark Warren, manager of Newquay Business Improvement District, said businesses had described to him near-misses between e-scooters and pedestrians.

He said: "We're seeing very young people - double passengers, triple passengers - scooting around the town.

"From a town centre point of view, particularly in the summer, we're extremely busy and don't have the infrastructure that really accommodates scooters coming through at whatever speed against the public walking.

"I think it's very successful in bigger cities like Bristol because they have designated cycle lanes and scooter lanes. But in smaller towns, you know, when you're going through a speed, it's an issue."

The trial is part of a government-approved initiative to encourage more green modes of transport, although personal e-scooters are still illegal to use in public spaces.

Provider Beryl said they had been used for about 15,000 journeys so far and safety restrictions were in place.

Phil Ellis, CEO of Beryl, said: "You do need to have a driving licence that we verify in the app and then, in places like heavily pedestrianised high streets, it'll slow down gradually just to keep you a little bit safer and keep the pedestrians a little bit safer.

"We do have experience of operating them in other towns and cities across the UK, so we have taken those learnings and applied restrictions that we think are appropriate.

"They have been running for a couple of months already and we haven't had any issues really."

Cornwall Council, which is responsible for public highways, said it was surveying the public for their views on the trial before feeding back responses to the government.

Liberal Democrat councillor Dan Rogerson, cabinet member for transport, said they had wanted to explore the idea after the success of a similar scheme involving e-bikes.

He said: "It's another option for people to use to get around town centres without using the car which helps with congestion and hopefully makes it a pleasant environment.

"Understandably people have concerns about another type of electric powered vehicle in those busy areas.

"If there are particular issues that need to be addressed, we'll take that up with the company that provides them to see if we can tweak things a bit."

He added the council would wait to see how well used the e-scooters were and feed back the results of the trial to the government.

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