More fines issued to curb badly parked e-bikes

Westminster City Council is issuing thousands more fines for badly parked dockless e-bikes since it began its enforcement crackdown on rogue parking.

So far more than 5,000 fixed penalty notices (FPN) have been given to operators since the start of the 2026-27 financial year, while only 1,259 were issued the previous year.

A sub-committee heard that if the crackdown continued at the same rate, Westminster was forecast to issue 9,648 dockless bike FPNs by the end of the year – a potential seven-fold increase.

E-bike rental firms Forest, Voi, Bolt and Lime have previously said they supported efforts to tackle poor parking and were working to encourage responsible use of their e-bikes.

Enforcement is mostly focused around 20 hotspots for irresponsible dockless e-bike parking, many of which are in the West End and St James's wards, a Westminster City Council sub-committee heard.

Cabinet member for enforcement, Caroline Sargent, said: "Sometimes hundreds of bikes are really seriously blocking the road, going into the road. So that is where the main seizure action is taking place, but the enforcement action is taking place in every ward.

"The issuing of FPNs is taking place everywhere. And there have been seizures that have taken place outside of those 20 hotspots too, but that is where most of it has been focused to date."

Just over £300,000 in FPNs and seizure costs has been levied against dockless e-bike operators in Westminster.

Over 1,000 dockless e-bikes have been seized this year, in cases where obstruction and safety issues are causing the most concern.

However the Tory-led dockless bike crackdown has been on the receiving end of some scrutiny by the opposition Labour group for the number of e-bike seizures.

Labour group leader, Ellie Ormsby, said: "This equates to around six bikes a day. In a city like Westminster, where e-bikes are so prevalent, this barely scratches the surface."

Sargent said that every Westminster City Council inspector had been trained up on issuing FPNs.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service understands that there are two inspectors who specifically cover e-bike seizures.

The council said that it recognises that it needs more parking bays to account for the increased demand of dockless e-bikes and to compensate for the "problematic bays" which it has removed.

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