A ban on e-bike and e-scooters and their batteries remains in place in eight Brighton blocks because of fire safety risks.
Residents in central Brighton blocks wanted to hear clarification from the council about whether e-scooters are banned from all tower blocks
Director for homes and investment Martin Reid said confirmed both e-scooters and e-bikes are banned from the eight large panel system blocks, which are a fire safety risk following structural surveys.
Work is underway to rehome people in the eight blocks – St James’s House in Kemp Town, Dudeney Lodge and Nettleton Court in Hollingdean and Falcon, Heron, Kestrel, Kingfisher and Swallow Courts in Whitehawk – with proposals moving forward to redevelop the sites for social housing.
Mr Reid said: “We’ve put on security to make sure that e-scooters and e-bikes are not put into those blocks. We’ve made alternative provision for storage, for e-bikes and scooters outside those blocks because of the issues.
“We have done a lot of work and information sharing around how to ensure they can be held safely.
“It’s in our annual letter to all our high-rise residents around some issues that can occur with e-bikes and e-scooters and storing them safely.
“It’s probably a significant people of work we can engage with residents on. There are concerns about e-bikes particularly when they’re bought from sources that are perhaps not reputable.”
Essex Place in Montague Street, Brighton, tenant’s representative Emma Salcombe said the council should expand its communications to all high-rise blocks, not just the eight which are most at risk.
She said: “I can understand why those people are at risk in their blocks, but we have had fires in high-rise blocks around the city.
“E-scooters are not illegal. They are illegal to ride on public pathways and public highways, you can only ride them on private land with permission.
“So that makes it really hard for most of the people who are riding them out on the streets because they don’t actually realise they are breaking the law.”
She was just as concerned as Mr Reid about people buying cheap e-scooters and bikes online.
Mr Reid said if residents have concerns he is willing to speak with high-rise residents’ representatives alongside East Sussex Fire and Rescue to ensure people are as safe as possible.
Should be barred everywhere, not legal anyway so why should there be a debate ??? seize on sight and scrap, obviously not the ones permitted on private land but it’s about time this idiocy was cancelled out.
This article is about e-bikes, not e-motorbikes.
I’ve seen some really nasty chemical-based burns from those batteries, especially ones that have been modified; you see on e-bikes as well as e-scooters. Very obvious it’s been tampered with when they are clocking the same speeds as a car.
Please clarify the speed of some cars ?
I’ve observed some e-bikes and e-scooters going greater than 50mph, personally.
By definition if it’s going that fast it’s an e-motorbike (and legally needs plates, insurance and a license) not an e-bike.
Right; and that’s the issue.
To put into context
There were at least 211 fires caused by e-bikes and e-scooters in the UK in 2024. This is a slight increase from 207 fires in 2023 and a significant rise from previous years, with 86 injuries and eight fatalities reported from these incidents in 2024.
In the year ending March 2024, there were 12,492 accidental dwelling fires caused by domestic cooking appliances in England, which accounted for 54% of all such fires. Cooking appliances are consistently the leading cause of accidental home fires.
Correct, and worth adding that the biggest source of fires overall in the UK is arson. However, the frequency is only one aspect to consider. Fire policy isn’t just about chasing the most common cause, it’s also about managing the risks that are the greatest risk to life when they do occur. That’s why lithium cell failures in high-rises get such strong guidance; because they cause greater injuries compared to normal burns and they produce toxic chemicals when they burn.
How much are Brighton and Hove City Council planning to spend on e-scooter hire and when they keep threatening to go bankrupt? Will it be another £13m like the Beryl bikes? How much profit have the Beryl bikes made so far, and considering the council scrapped the original scheme and bought a whole new fleet of bikes?
None. The report is quite explicit that there is no financial impact to the BHCC budget.