Westminster's legal authority to take part in the London e-scooter trial has lapsed. A cabinet member signs up again to May 2028 on 21 September, with no public consultation.

Westminster’s legal authority to take part in London’s rental e-scooter trial has run out, and the council is signing up for another two years without asking anyone.

A cabinet member report published on 11 September asks Cllr Tim Mitchell, cabinet member for city management, to approve continued participation in the Department for Transport and Transport for London trial until May 2028. The decision is due on 21 September. The register records it as not a key decision and not subject to call-in.

The authority lapsed

The report is unusually direct about why it exists.

Legal advice told the council it needs fresh authority to sign anything further with TfL, because “previous approvals were limited in scope and duration, and that authority has now lapsed”.

The original approval covered 18 months. The extension after it was granted on the expectation that the Transport Bill would become law in the 2024/25 parliamentary session. It did not. Five years on from the first trial, rental e-scooters in England are still running on temporary permission and private e-scooters remain illegal on public roads.

The report lists every extension and the reason given for it:

  • to March 2022, because the trials started more slowly than expected during the pandemic
  • to November 2022, after the DfT issued updated safety guidance in February 2022
  • to 31 May 2024, to let the DfT consider what further evidence it needed
  • to May 2026, to build on learning about usage, safety and environmental impact
  • to May 2028, the extension now proposed

TfL plans a micromobility licensing scheme in 2028. Until then the trial is the only lawful route for a rental e-scooter in Westminster.

From 67 bays to 216

The scale has changed a great deal since 2021.

Westminster set out 67 designated parking bays when it joined the trial in August 2021. The report says the council now operates 216 bays across the borough, used for both rental e-scooters and dockless e-bikes.

The council is firm that it will not accept free-floating parking. Its stated approach is designated bays, geofencing where appropriate, operator controls and monitoring of the effect on pedestrians and accessibility. That sits alongside the data-sharing deal it struck with the dockless bike operators in August.

The money is straightforward. Implementation cost about £54,000, TfL paid for it, and the report says running costs since have also been recovered from TfL. The intention is that the trial stays cost neutral to the council.

Nobody was asked

Section 13 of the report is one sentence long.

No public consultation was carried out. The reasons given are that the trial has run since August 2021, that the decision follows from the DfT extending it, and that no substantial changes are proposed.

Residents who have complained about e-scooters on pavements will notice that the report acknowledges the problem in detail and still does not ask them anything. It states that a badly parked rental e-scooter or e-bike “can deny safe and equitable access for all pedestrians, especially the less mobile”, and that impacts on disabled, older and visually impaired people “will need to remain under active review”. The equality impact assessment was completed in 2021 and last updated in 2023.

What the council says about safety

The report sets out the safety evidence it is working from, and it does not flatter e-scooters.

  • Riders are more exposed to injury than people on comparable vehicles such as cycles, e-bikes and mopeds.
  • Serious injuries are most likely where a motor vehicle is involved.
  • A higher than average proportion of e-scooter collisions at night involve drink riding.
  • Collisions between riders and pedestrians are low in number, and the injuries tend to be more minor.

Officers conclude that the DfT and TfL are satisfied with current vehicle construction and other mitigations, and that the trial should not end on safety grounds. The report adds that the police have raised no safety concerns since the trial started.

The council keeps its powers to remove and seize non-compliant e-scooters under the Highways Act 1980, and equivalent powers over rental e-bikes through the collaboration agreements TfL signed with the operators.

Two things still unsettled

Insurance. Officers are still working with the DfT and TfL on what insurance will be required under any future legislation, including whether it will have to cover third-party liability. That is not resolved.

Driving licences. Riders currently need a full or provisional UK driving licence, or an overseas equivalent. The report says that requirement “may be subject to amendment” once the trial concludes. Keeping it is one of the conditions on which officers base the recommendation.

The report is also honest about the open-ended nature of all this. It says there is “no indication when these strategic authorities move towards a decision” on making rental or private e-scooters permanently legal.

What it means for you

Nothing changes on the street this month. Same operators, same bays, same rules. The decision keeps an existing arrangement going rather than starting a new one.

Park in a bay or expect it removed. The council’s position is a bay-based scheme, not free-floating, and it retains seizure powers under the Highways Act. With 216 bays now marked out, “there was nowhere to leave it” is a weaker argument than it was in 2021.

A private e-scooter is still illegal on the road or the pavement. The trial covers TfL-appointed rental operators only. The report notes that withdrawing from the trial would do nothing about private machines.

Report a blocked pavement to the council, not the operator. Westminster manages the bays and the enforcement, and it is the council that decides where bays go through traffic order consultations.

If you want to object, the window is short. The report was published on 11 September and the decision is due on 21 September. Queries go to Steve Tse at Westminster City Council, named as the report contact.

Related: dockless bikes in Westminster and parking charges by zone.

Sources