East Yorkshire: Police crackdown on e-scooters urged by councillor

Police need to clamp down on privately-owned e-scooters being used on public highways, an East Yorkshire councillor has warned.

The growing use of the vehicles on public roads and paths was dangerous and unlawful, Viv Padden said.

The Lib Dem councillor told a meeting that one young woman had recently been left with a fractured skull after being hit by an e-scooter.

Humberside Police said action would be taken where appropriate.

Trials of e-scooter hire schemes are being carried out across the country, but using privately-owned e-scooter is currently banned in the UK except on private land.

Speaking at a full council meeting last week, Mr Padden said in the recent incident he was referring to, a woman had been walking up a one-way street in August when an e-scooter was ridden around the corner and hit her.

She suffered three skull fractures and was left unable to work, he said.

In an interview with BBC Radio Humberside, the Tranby ward councillor said the battery-powered scooters were often ridden on pavements, travelling at speeds of up to 13mph (20 km/h).

"That is very, very dangerous," he said.

Last month, councillors heard that Humberside Police was reluctant to take what was seen as a heavy-handed approach to e-scooter riders, despite the vehicles being illegal on public roads.

Insp Tony Tilsley, from the force's roads policing unit, told a meeting of the council's Safer and Stronger Communities Sub-Committee that any vehicle was dangerous in the wrong hands.

"I suppose it's like any form of transport: if someone chooses to ride it in a reckless manner then they choose to ride it in a reckless manner," he said.

However, he added: "It would seem harsh for us to come in and take little Johnny's e-scooter off him because he had been riding down the footpath on it."

Humberside Police said it did not want to "criminalise people, especially young people, unnecessarily", but it would take action against "those that ride dangerously or put others at risk".

East Riding of Yorkshire councillors voted to refer the issue of e-scooters for further examination.

Follow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].