Winchester scraps e-scooter trial amid Covid travel disruption

It remains illegal to use an e-scooter on the road, outside of government-approved trials

Plans to trial e-scooters in Winchester have been scrapped because of "too tight" deadlines and disruption to travel patterns as a result of Covid.

Hampshire County Council had been among a number of authorities in England due to host the government-led scheme to test electric rental scooters.

It says it hopes to test an electric bike scheme for the city instead.

Portsmouth City Council is due to go ahead with its 12-month e-scooter trial later this month.

Hampshire County Council deputy leader Rob Humby said the timelines for the Department for Transport scheme had been "too tight" for it to be properly implemented, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

'Narrow roads'

He said: "The impact of the third Covid-19 lockdown has also meant that the need for the scheme to happen right now has changed and it is not the best time to run a pilot whilst travel is so disrupted."

He said the council was investigating the business case for an e-bike hire scheme instead.

Councillor Martin Tod, of Winchester City Council, said: "E-scooters are a lot harder because we have not got enough cycle lanes, our roads are quite narrow and it was very hard to see how we could have a meaningful trial that is going to be safe.

"E-bikes are an active project. We are very keen to see if we can find a way to make them work."

Currently, privately-owned e-scooters can only be used on private land so an amendment to the law was required for the trials to go ahead.

Trials have already begun in Bournemouth and Poole, Oxford, Slough and on the Isle of Wight.