THE DECISION not to take part in an 'environmentally-friendly' trial for electric scooter use across the Wokingham borough's roads has come under scrutiny from members of the public recently.

It was raised to the Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) in a meeting on July 23, where councillors answered questions from residents regarding issues they felt needed addressing.

Wokingham resident Ed Pearson asked Cllr Pauline Jorgensen, executive member for highways and transport: "Is Wokingham planning on taking part in the Electric Scooter trials proposed by the Department for Transport?

"If not, then why not? This is an affordable, socially distanced and environmentally-friendly form of transport, and taking part in these trials would see Wokingham leading the way on commitments to fighting climate change."

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In response to the posed question, Cllr Pauline Jorgensen said: "It is correct that local authorities were given the opportunity to become trial sites for allowing use of electric scooters on public roads.

"The plan is for these trials to help inform government on what type of legislation they should bring in to ensure the scooters are used appropriately and are safe for both the users and others, particularly pedestrians and other vulnerable road users.

"Those trial sites will be allowing rental e-scooters (but none that are privately owned) to use the public highway and the highway authority has been able to set its own guidance in terms of whether they can be used on footways, shared paths and/or carriageway.

"There are some safety concerns and issues such as difficulty in indicating (they are very unstable if ridden one-handed) and their small wheels are susceptible to surface defects and debris.

"In addition, in a town centre setting and on shared paths they may be seen as a nuisance by many and we did not feel it appropriate to encourage their use at this time.

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"With regard to the climate change agenda; we have the My Journey Team who have completed some excellent work in promoting sustainable travel and in teaching adults and children to cycle and use human-powered scooters safely.

"We are also delivering infrastructure for sustainable travel including our park and ride sites, greenways and we are currently completing the next phase of the A329 cycleway; our new roads also include provision for cycling.

"There is little evidence that scooter journeys will replace car journeys and shifting people from cycling and walking to scooters will therefore likely have negligible impact on our climate emergency objectives."

Cllr Jorgensen did conclude however that the council would be monitoring the outcome of trials in other areas and would review its decision based on their results.