A debate has been sparked over a potential crackdown on e-bikes and ‘anti-social riding’ in Reading.
Reading Borough Council is hoping to impose a legal crackdown on a number of anti-social behaviours.
The council wants to penalise begging, street drinking, poor dog behaviour and fouling, and the anti-social use of e-scooters and e-bikes.
To punish these, the council must make a borough-wide public space protection order (PSPO).
However, concerns have been raised that cyclists who use their e-bikes properly could be unnecessarily penalised.
The potential creation of a PSPO was discussed at a recent council meeting.
Jason Murphy, the council’s community safety manager, explained that the PSPO will last three years.
Karen Rowland (Labour, Abbey) lead councillor for community safety, stated that it is a tool to tackle negative behaviours, but does have limitations in terms of resources available to the council and police.
She said: “It’s only as good as the level to which it is used.
“It does allow that power, once it’s in place to be utilised, to confront those problems.”
Cllr Rowland then said a problem-solving group would be created to monitor progress, and avoid gaps in enforcement when a PSPO was last imposed from 2018 to 2021.
However, cllr Adele Barnett-Ward (Labour, Thames) pointed out a contradiction in terms in the proposed order between legal and illegal e-bikes.
She said: “It acknowledges that e-bikes are legal, and that the council encourages their use.
“But then there’s a non-sequitur, because it goes on to talk about e-bikes being ridden at speeds that exceed speed limits due to modifications, well, those aren’t legal e-bikes.
“So that’s got nothing to do with legal e-bikes, but they’re smushed together.”
Cllr Barnett-Ward then said that there is already confusion among the public over shared cycling and pedestrian spaces, and that grouping e-bikes and e-scooters caused more confusion, as e-scooters are not currently legalised.
Furthermore, cllr Will Cross (Labour, Redlands) called for clarity on what the anti-social use of legal e-bikes meant.
He referred to a case in the news in London where barrister Paul Powlesland was given an FPN for cycling hands-free, with the officer issuing the penalty arguing that he was breaching the ‘Right to Life’ of surrounding pedestrians.
Cllr Cross said: “It was funny, but that was an example, one of many, of overzealous or incorrect enforcement of PSPOs regarding cycling.”
Superintendent Colin Hudson, the local policing area commander for Reading, agreed that greater clarity is needed on the anti-social use of legal e-bikes.
Ultimately, the council’s housing, neighbourhoods and leisure committee decided to launch a public consultation into the proposed PSPO at the meeting on Wednesday, July 9.
The committee will then receive a report on the consultation when it meets in November.
