Try to stop the epidemic of badly parked motorbikes in Camden

Camden Council’s democratically agreed policy states that pedestrians are our number one priority. Our transport strategy defines the ‘hierarchy’ of who our transport and community activities are aimed at. First of all, there are people who walk, people who ride bicycles, and people who use public transportation.

This reflects the way people travel around the borough: in Camden, more than two-thirds of residents do not have access to a car, and already more than eight in 10 trips by our residents are made by public transport, walking and cycling. We need to make sure our streets are designed to meet the needs of our residents. And it’s very important that people can walk, cycle and use public transport if they don’t already.

Cllr Adam Harrison says Camden is dealing with badly parked undocked bikes (Image: Camden Council)

E-bike and electric scooter hire is popular and helps people get around in eco-friendly ways, with 100,000 cycle trips starting in Camden every month, with significant health and environmental benefits.

But to deal with bogus parking, Camden has now put the operation of e-bikes on a contract basis (the e-scooters are contracted to TfL).

This is important because the Government has not given councils formal powers over dockless bike hire and ministers continue to draw attention to the issue.

Camden has previously supported a London-wide bylaw that would have given us legal powers to enforce against operators of badly parked bikes. Some districts chose not to sign up for it, meaning the entire measure failed.

The new contract will allow us to better monitor the number of bikes in the area, ensure operators are quick to remove anything blocking the pavement and make sure bikes are parked. This means we can also ensure operators charge fines to people who don’t park properly and issue bans to persistent offenders.

We became the first districts to deploy bicycle parking. Almost 200 compartments are now located on the streets of Camden and more will need to be followed to solve this problem and ensure that the compartment is closer to more residents.

In fact, we need to stop calling these bikes “dockless” and start calling them “bikes” because that’s the only way to expand cycling opportunities for more people while protecting pedestrians.

• Cllr Adam Harrison is Cabinet Member for Sustainable Camden, Camden Council.