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.
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