Cumbria Police urge parents not to buy their children e-scooters for Christmas

Cumbria Police say they will seize e-scooters - which is classified as a motor vehicle - in public spaces following their appeal to parents not to buy them as Christmas gifts for their children.

Electric scooters are illegal to ride in public places such as roads and pavements across Britain - except where rental trials are taking place in 22 areas of England.

The official e-scooter schemes are taking place across cities like Newcastle, Liverpool and London. The trials are set to run until 2026.

Cumbria Police has seized 39 e-scooters in the last year. Jack Stabler, Cumbria Police Inspector, says parents should think twice about buying them for their children this Christmas.

He said: "If you're seen riding anytime in Cumbria on the road networks or pavements, it's classified as a motor vehicle and you'd be subjected to insurance and driving licenses.

"We often find people don't have licenses because it's a quick and easy way to get around."

He also believes people do not realise the driving regulations that comes with owning the motor vehicle, he added: "If you're stopped we can utilise Section 165 of the Road Traffic Act, which effectively means we would seize the e-scooter from you, also because it's a motor vehicle you'd be subject to the same drink and drug driving regulations.

"Often we find people who are drunk on a night out jumping on an e-scooter for 30 seconds, they then end up in custody and they're charged for driving over the prescribed limit - it's exactly the same as if they were in a car."

Electric scooters are legal to own and ride on private property but not in public spaces.

Paul Whitehead, from Whiteheads Cycle Shop, says he refuses to sell them because in his view 'they're unsafe and should not be legal'.

He said: "I get asked a lot from people wanting to buy them for Christmas and I don't know anywhere in this city that sells them - they're obviously buying them online.

"Everyday without fail you see people riding past. I'm surprised nobody has been injured here on the pavement before. I just don't think it's being policed enough and people are just flouting the law."

ITV Border spoke to the public to gage their view, one woman said: "You don't hear them coming because of traffic noise nearby, next thing you know they're whizzing past and sometimes they come very close."

Another woman from Carlisle said: "They [parents] should think of the child's safety first, shouldn't they? But also they've not got any sense when there's lots of people around on pavements."

A man said: "They're super speedy and unsupervised, it's unsafe. If it's also not legal then maybe people should not be buying them."

In response to people from Cumbria sharing their concerns about the access to e-scooters, Inspector Jack Stabler added: "Cumbria Police have a lot of priorities and road safety is one of those. It would be a priority if our officers do see someone on a e-scooter - we also use discretion - but if we do happen to stop you we can seize it and we can issue points, fines and loss of qualifications."

James Bolton, General Manager of Voi UK, a company that rents electric vehicles across cities, says "safety is the number one priority".

He said: "We have gone through various evolutions over the last few years whether it's to do with the hardware itself, such things as having indicators on the vehicle here rather than people having to indicate with their arms.

"All of our users have to take part in a mandatory onboarding test where they're told the rules of the road."

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