The council of Cheltenham has banned e-scooters from being used throughout the week of the Cheltenham Festival after police raised concerns over drunken punters riding them after dark last year.
Horse racing fans attending the festival may have to travel on foot when going about town due to the decision.
E-scooter operator Zwings expressed their disappointment in the ban.
These controversial bikes are available for hire in over 30 towns and cities, where they are allowed on roads and pathways by local authorities.
This is in line with a government experiment to see if they are suitable for a wider rollout as green transport.
The Gloucestershire Police raised concerns of “clearly intoxicated” people speeding about town in the evenings during last year’s festival.
They suggested that these riders could “create all sorts of accidents”.
The force’s commissioner, Chris Nelson, witnessed people who were clearly intoxicated getting on e-scooters and scooting down Evesham Road, weaving in and out of the public.
He believes that a whole load of e-scooters parked up outside the entrance to the racecourse was a hostage to fortune.
Despite these criticisms, Zwings has stressed that there were no accidents during the event last year.
The Cheltenham Festival is one of the highlights of the horse racing calendar and brings 250,000 visitors to the Cotswolds town every year.
Shaun West, deputy chief constable at Gloucestershire Police, has said that this year’s festivities come at a difficult time, with A&E patients being sent to Gloucester hospital instead of Cheltenham due to NHS strikes.
He added the importance of “keeping people safe” and “preventing injury at a time when hospitals are very busy”.
He believes that any effort to minimize the impact of that should be an admirable ambition.
»Cheltenham Festival Bans E-Scooters for Safety Reasons After Drunken Punters Incident«
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