You asked, we did it: tackling illegal e-scooter use in Grantham

Officers in Grantham have been targeting e-scooters being used illegally in response to public feedback that it’s an issue they want to see us tackle.

The local Neighbourhood Policing Team put e-scooters as a priority area following consultation with the local council, schools, and the community.

The e-scooter priority was set in June. Since then, there have been eight seizures in the Grantham area and one traffic offence report which means that they are reported to the central ticket office and are likely received a fine and/or points on the licence.

And just this week, the team has carried out some proactive enforcement and found three e-scooter riders who were using them illegally in the Uplands Drive and town centre areas of the town. 

With two of the riders, officers prevented them from being used by stopping the individuals before they had the chance to ride the vehicle. Both were provided a QR code linking to advice on the Force website and verbally warned. This was in the town centre.

The third was seized for having no insurance as it was being driven on the path in the Uplands Drive area.

We also gathered intelligence from residents in Grantham about other areas suffering issues such as e-scooters being ridden at speeds estimated around 30mph.

Community Beat Manager PC Karl Cinavas, said: "The public response has been very good, and I have been approached by many members of the general public to thank the team for our work. The results we’ve had shows how important this was; on a couple of occasions, we have found that vehicles which were just not road-worthy as their brakes don’t work.

"Our primary aim is to make our neighbourhoods safe, and we have taken, what I think, is a reasonable approach. Most youngsters who we have had to stop have mostly been dealt with by giving them and their parents words of advice, although we have seized the scooters when necessary. In one case earlier this week we seized a vehicle from a 16 year old riding on the pavement in the Uplands Drive area, but did not issue a ticket.

"This means that there isn’t a risk of points on his ghost licence – another word for a licence he doesn’t yet hold. There has been a clear support from the public on how we are handling this, and several incidents called in of near misses or complaints of road rage from users of e-scooters. We’d like to thank everyone in our community who has helped spread the message and share information, and all those who have positively engaged with us when approached."

The team initially highlighted that they were planning to tackle e-scooters via their local social media channel, and also shared details with the local authority and staff at the local secondary schools. 

They have also launched a new survey through social media to capture the views of residents on how their work is going – which so far has been very positive. We’re asking more people to respond to that, which can be found here.

If you have an e-scooter and you’re not sure on the rules, more information can be found here.