Camden has joined London’s e-scooter trial.

On Monday (September 27), the borough became the 10th council to join the capital’s trial of rental e-scooters which started in June.

There are now 197 e-scooter bays in Camden. It is still illegal to use privately owned e-scooters on public roads and riders cannot go on the pavement.

Riders in Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, Richmond, Tower Hamlets, the City of London, Lambeth, Southwark and Westminster are also involved in the trial.

Camden put the issue to residents in the summer in what is thought to be the only council consultation on any of the 32 trials in England.

Cllr Adam Harrison, cabinet member for a sustainable Camden, said: “We want our streets to have more space for everyone to walk and cycle, for you to be breathing cleaner air, for children to get to and from school safely, and for businesses to be able to flourish.

“Rental e-scooters could be one solution, providing an alternative mode of transport that is emission-free, potentially reducing the number of motor vehicles on our streets and easing pressures on the transport network.”

Out of 435 people who joined the consultation, 272 people told the council they were not keen on the trial and said they were concerned about accidents.

Seventy-one per cent said if the trial went ahead they supported the use of designated bays, with 60 per cent backing the use of cycleways and cycle tracks in Camden.

Most of them liked the idea of no-go zones and over half rejected the idea of e-scooters going both directions on one-way streets.

The council plans to make all of its parks no-go zones to prevent rental e-scooters from accessing them. Scooters will also not be permitted in market streets and Healthy School Street zones.

The e-scooters can only be parked in designated places and cannot be ridden in certain no-go areas, where they automatically stop. They slow to eight miles per hour in go-slow areas.

Their top speed is limited to 12.5mph and the e-scooters can only be ridden in the participating boroughs.

Rental ranges from £3.25 to £3.40 for a 15-minute ride.