Dangerously parked e-bikes seized by council

Dockless e-bikes that have been parked dangerously will be seized by a central London council in a further crackdown.

Westminster City Council said it would physically remove Lime, Forest, Voi and Bolt e-bikes that were obstructing the highway, including bikes on dropped kerbs, bus lanes, cycle lanes, doorways or access ramps.

The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) said badly parked e-bikes were a serious safety threat to people with sight loss.

Forest, Voi and Bolt said they supported efforts to tackle poor parking and were working to encourage responsible use of their e-bikes. Lime has yet to respond.

The council said that once any bikes had been seized, they would be taken to a storage facility and become available for collection after the company that owned them had paid a fee.

The operation is an escalation of the council's existing enforcement approach. Since November 2025, it has issued more than 2,500 penalty notices to operators.

A spokesperson for Westminster City Council said the seizures had been introduced because issuing penalties "hasn't changed the behaviour" of e-bike hire companies.

Mike Wordingham, RNIB's head of policy, who has sight loss, said the council's action was an "important step".

"Dockless bikes are often left strewn around public places, which is a serious safety threat to people with sight loss," he said.

"Recent RNIB research showed 81% of survey respondents said bikes or e-scooters left on pavements make their journeys harder."

He called for "sufficient fixed docking stations" on the road, instead of pavements.

Daniel Howell, from Bolt, said they had a range of measures in place to encourage responsible parking.

"I think we are the only operator to have mandatory parking bays with a cap on, so you can't park more bikes than you're allowed in it," he said.

"When you do park, you have to take a picture and AI verifies it is parked correctly. And if you break that, you get fined by us, and if you keep doing it, you get banned by us."

He added: "We have a 98% parking success rate - I don't see it impacting us too much."

Harry Foskin, for Voi, said the company required a mandatory photo at the end of a journey to verify good parking.

"We also operate a programme of warnings and fines, going up to account suspension and bans for people who repeatedly park poorly," he said.

A Forest spokesperson said they were committed to working closely with councils to encourage responsible parking, and called for more dedicated bays.

"By creating more places for people to end their journeys safely and conveniently, we can help keep pavements clear," they added.

Additional reporting by Nisha Patel and Leyla Hayes, BBC London.

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