Call for crackdown on vandalism and nuisance e-scooters in Biggleswade

The council had recently spent money renovating the wall in Mill Lane, town councillors were told.

Elsewhere in the town, hedging which has just been planted was uprooted at Biggleswade Cemetery, while some rubbish was dumped in the Eagle Farm Road play area.

Bedfordshire Police Chief Insp Jim Goldsmith and PCSO for Biggleswade Ann Jeeves were invited to speak to the town council during its meeting on March 11.

Town councillor Madeline Russell explained: “We’ve been made aware of some anti-social behaviour at the weekend when a wall, on which we’ve spent time and money, next to The Splash in Mill Lane, has been pushed over.

“About four courses of bricks have gone over and our people had to move them, earlier this week. Now we’ve got to find the time and money to put it back together again. It’s not long since the wall had been done.

“There were also problems in the cemetery where some hedging was pulled up which had just been set, while some rubbish was dumped in the Eagle Farm Road play area. So that’s three things in one weekend.”

Asked if all three incidents have been reported, town clerk Peter Tarrant confirmed the wall had, but “not yet” the other two.

Town councillor Duncan Strachan said: “There seems to be a proliferation of e-scooters about the town, going along at excessive speeds on the road or the footpath.

“Are the police going to do anything about it, because it’s only a matter of time before someone less mobile will be hit by one of these. The majority of those might be illegal. I regard it as anti-social, even if they’re delivering food to people at 9pm.”

Chief Insp Goldsmith replied: “All e-scooters are illegal in this country, unless they’ve been authorised for one of the trial schemes.

“Unfortunately the results of that have been delayed for more than a year, otherwise we wouldn’t have this problem now.

“We target them where we can, but we very much do an engage, explain, enforce approach. Much of this is around parents buying these scooters for their children, so you get plenty of young people riding them.

“Section 59 of the Police Reform Act enables us to issue a notice to them, if they’re seen on camera. If we see them on the road and they’re not insured, we’ll recover the scooters.

“On the delivery side, powered bikes is the issue you’ll have around Biggleswade and everywhere else because you’ve got each company which delivers food using riders on those bikes.

“Part of the challenge, having had a trial in Cambridgeshire, is we’ll probably need to tell the public on the nights we’re doing it not to expect their food because that was one of the feedback points.

“So many were stopped, it interrupted on the food deliveries through that knock-on impact,” he added. “We’re very much aware of the issue and doing our best.”