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Just Eat cyclist.PNG“I was new, I didn’t know the rules”: Delivery cyclists urge colleagues to follow rules as 37 riders issued £100 fines for cycling in city centre
While penalties for cyclists riding through pedestrianised areas in the town centres have become more and more common in the last couple of years, with councils using the infamous Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) to fine cyclists, delivery riders have urged their fellow workers to follow the rules, after it was reported that 37 Just Eat and Deliveroo cyclists have been fined £100 in Canterbury this year.
While other councils such Grimsby and Colchester have made the most headlines for issuing fines to cyclists, the Canterbury City Council had previously announced its intentions of using the PSPO rule to clamp down on “reckless” food delivery cyclists because of the risk they are perceived to pose to pedestrians in parts of the city.
Cyclists haven’t been allowed to ride through pedestrianised parts of the city such as St George’s Street and St Peter’s Street between 10:30am and 4pm every day for several years now.
However in January Canterbury City Council issued a new Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) in a bid to crack down on aggressive driving, cycling through pedestrianised areas and excessive noise. The current PSPO is scheduled to be in effect until at least January 7, 2027.
And now, 37 Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN) have been issued to cyclists by enforcement officers working with Kent Police since the beginning of the year, with Daily Mail reporting that tourists and shoppers were complaining of having to dive and dodge couriers on the high street.
However some delivery drivers who have been hit with the fines were unaware they weren’t allowed to ride through the city centre, with a few even in their first days of the job.
Tariqul Islam, a Deliveroo rider was handed a £100 fine barely a week into his job after riding through pedestrian areas outside the permitted hours. “One day I was on the high street at the wrong time and a city council officer called me over and talked to me about the rules,” the 36-year-old said.
“I told them it was unknown to me but they said it's my responsibility to know and gave me a fine. I respect the rules and I agree it was my fault. So after four days, I earned the money to pay the fine and since then I have been following all the rules.
“It's a good job delivering food, but when it puts other people at risk of harm it’s not good, so I call on all delivery persons to follow the law and be respectful.”
Another Deliveroo rider, 29-year-old Shagor Shafi, also found himself in a similar predicament when he didn't know the city centre rules. He said: “I was new, I didn’t know the rules. The council guy stopped me and said, ‘You can't ride on a bike here’. I’m very careful now and just walk my bike through the high street.’”
Just Eat worker Zia Zia has managed to avoid being slapped with a fine so far, but urged other delivery riders to know and follow the rules.
The response from the public towards this move from the council has been positive, reports Daily Mail. 63-year-old Sarah Lockyer, said: “I think the important thing is that pedestrians are protected, given the rights that they should have - to walk in what is mainly a pedestrianised area and to feel safe doing so.
“We get a lot of visitors to the city and they assume that they're not going to bump into traffic, or traffic’s not going to bump into them.”
> “Why pick on a lone female cyclist?” Cyclist slapped with £100 fine – for riding on a cycle path
A Deliveroo spokesperson said: “We regularly engage with riders and local authorities to help keep riders and other road users safe, including working with Canterbury City Council.
“We will issue targeted communications to riders in the Canterbury area to help drive awareness of these rules.’
A JustEat spokesperson said: “At Just Eat, we expect all couriers delivering on our behalf to act respectfully and responsibly at all times. We provide guidance to our independent restaurant partners and self employed contractors to ensure they follow the rules of the road.
“If we are ever made aware that a courier delivering on our behalf has acted in a way that does not uphold the standards we hope to deliver, we will of course take action as appropriate.”
> Canterbury City Council to clamp down on “reckless” food delivery riders
Just yesterday, it was reported that another cyclist found themselves on the receiving end of a hefty bill of £500 for riding through the town centre, with the North East Lincolnshire Council continuing to enforce a controversial cycling ban in Grimsby and warning that cyclists will be "rightly punished" and face "repercussions" if they "have not followed the rules".
The council has been particularly notorious for the many fines it has levied on cyclists, perhaps the most famous, or infamous coming all the way back in 2022 when there was backlash from locals after a Grimsby pensioner was fined £100 for cycling through the town centre, with some accusing the council officers of targeting "old and slow" riders while ignoring youths "racing up and down".
Barry Enderby, the 82-year-old cyclist, became somewhat of a cult hero amongst cyclists and road.cc readers after he told North East Lincolnshire Council he would "rather go to prison than give them £100" and they could "stick it up your a*se" after he was fined for breaching a PSPO.
Since then, the Colchester City Council has also come under scrutiny for its utilising of “rogue” wardens who were accused of “lying in wait” to catch cyclists riding on the pavement, after two riders were fined £100 for briefly mounting a footpath to avoid navigating a notoriously busy roundabout and its “thick and fast motor traffic” — a penalty described by one of the cyclists involved as “unjustified” and “a bit farcical”.
Since the start of this year, 62 cyclists have been fined £100 each in Colchester by wardens employed by the Waste Investigations Support and Enforcement (WISE) agency, an external organisation subcontracted by Colchester City Council and at least 20 other local authorities across the UK where PSPOs are in place.
Adwitiya joined road.cc in 2023 as a news writer after completing his masters in journalism from Cardiff University. His dissertation focused on active travel, which soon threw him into the deep end of covering everything related to the two-wheeled tool, and now cycling is as big a part of his life as guitars and football. He has previously covered local and national politics for Voice Cymru, and also likes to write about science, tech and the environment, if he can find the time. Living right next to the Taff trail in the Welsh capital, you can find him trying to tackle the brutal climbs in the valleys.
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48 comments
"reports Daily Mail"
Please don't do this.
Quoting the Daily Mail is poor journalism quoting terrible journalism.
Quoting the Mail is terrible journalism quoting division-stirring hate-wank fantasy. Only acceptable as parody or to mock it.
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Loving your intelligent, well-judged, beautifully expressed comment.
.
Truly, you are a great educator.
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More, many more, please.
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Not so long ago I would have argued against targeting cyclists in this way but recently I was knocked off my own bike by a Just Eat bike courier who was riding an illegal ebike recklessly. So I'm glad to see some enforcement in this area but wish it was the companies being held accountable rather than the individual couriers. Just Eat and Deliveroo are taking the profit but not the accountability
I found a rad rhino parked on private land (without permission). On finding the spec it was around 35kg with a 750w motor.
No way do you want that hitting you even at low speed.
Currys (high street store folks) will happily sell you one of these:
https://www.currys.co.uk/products/8tev-b10-roam-electric-scooter-red-and...
Does 21mph - it's an electric scooter... luckily they've added (at bottom) the tagline:
... so that's alright then. (They don't seem to be selling any ebikes rated for more than 15.5mph for what that's worth).
Government couldn't give a toss.
Again though - I think there are separate (albeit somewhat related) issues here:
- Food delivery companies taking the michael in several ways (no "employees" so dodge responsibility and tax, I'd bet they know they're facilitating a grey economy, don't care much about other impacts to public)
- (which leads to people working who legally shouldn't / no interest in safe and considerate riding / driving)
- Road policing run down over the years (and especially recent - not just last year - focus on "avoiding accusations of war on the motorist")
- Can't be bothered to properly regulate all the new e-things (particularly sale) - I think Trading Standards was also run down...
- Not building adequate infra to make non-fully-motorised travel safer and more convenient while also continuing to build more infra to make motorised travel safer and more convenient.
If it's an illegal e-bike, then that's effectively an unregistered motorbike. What possible reason would there be for targetting cyclists if the problem isn't cyclists?
Tariqul Islam didn't know the rules? Feeble excuse: he just needs to look at the bl**dy signs!
That's obviously harder than you'd imagine, round my way there are 20 mph limit signs on lampposts and enormous 20 mph limit roundels painted on the roads and yet 85% of motorists apparently haven't seen them.
Meanwhile virtually every food delivery rider I see in my my city and most other cities for that matter is riding an illegal e-bike. Yet nothing seems to be getting done about that particular problem.
Is it actually a problem, though, really? I mean, every day I see e-bikes, mostly under food delivery riders, that are blatantly illegal by the letter of the law through being throttle controlled up to speeds well above 28kph. The riders aren't great at respecting red lights either. On the other hand, as a cyclist I can't say I've ever personally had an incident with one or felt threatened by one in the way one does by all those lawful car drivers in their large, fast and heavy vehicles. Who get home and order in some food to be delivered by a rider on an illegal e-bike.
I think that legislation will eventually have to move and adjust to the new realities of two wheeled road travel.
The legislation is fine already? They're riding mopeds, they need registration plates fitting and making sure they have MOTs and insurance.
Also they need to stop riding on the pavement and in cycle lanes.
They sure as hell ARE a problem when angry motorists tar every other (legal) cyclist like you and me with the same brush and associate us with this cycling underclass. They are also more likely to cause injury to another person and they should have insurance but don't. Just because they don't cause YOU a problem doesn't mean what they are doing is ok.I mean,drink drivers,disqualified drivers ,uninsured drivers don't cause ME a direct problem if they are in a different city to where I am.But that doesn't mean what they are doing is ok. Your response is a bit puzzling.What you are effectively saying is that breaking the law is ok so long as it doesn't directly affect you.
52 year old veteran, currently doing Deliveroo on a bike to make a wage, whilst doing an Msc as part of retraining, would you regard me as "cycling underclass" - not only is your description discriminatory it also paints you as an elitist - not a good look in my honest opinion.
Again wrong. Riders working for delivery companies have insurance as they are automatically covered by the companies whilst engaged in activities on behalf of the company. Further to that, several I work with, and like myself, are also members of Cycling UK & British Cycling. Your levels of ignorance are astounding to be frank.
But I thought that they were all independent contractors and most definitely not employees, so it's up to them?
Massive problem. Now I'm 69, a lot of my friends and relatives are less sprightly of legs, eyes, and ears. The huge, wide, heavy ebikes are terrifying whether on pavements, bike paths not wide enough for them, and roads as they ignore Highway Code
I don't think you can really blame them for ignoring the Highway Code - they're inanimate objects - they'd have difficulty reading it.
People keep saying this. Well - I can't tell for sure, not having testing facilities ...
In Edinburgh I do see a few I would have no problem pointing out as illegal. However I don't see them commonly used by the food delivery guys. Those guys rarely overtake me (I'm not speedy) and while "but no pedalling" I believe there are some subtleties to rules around throttle.
I'd suggest that most of the food delivery guys are likely not being paid enough to get the wilder electric motorbikes. In Edinburgh I believe they tend to rent their ride (most bikes are have a particular company logo) - sometimes folks will share a rental to maximise usage.
Now - are those definitely *only* fully legal EAPCs, well-maintained machines, always carefully ridden? No. Is it a great idea to allow companies to pretend they don't have employees and farm out support for those and risk to the public - while making legal coin off a "grey economy"? Definitely no.
So back to the (much rarer) guys passing me without pedalling, uphill, at 20mph and (well) above? If they're delivering things I suspect it's far more valuable cargo than a lukewarm curry...
The police don't seem to care about either, but while questioning how we've let the food delivery market blow up I'd suggest the police might start with the ... non-food delivery end.
Seriously, come to Manchester,Birmingham or London. They are everywhere. 20 to 30 miles an hour everywhere and barely a turn of the pedals.
Well I would but I'm stuck behind some ones going 13mph in Edinburgh.
I am not in favour of the general policy of "we don't care about what people sell / ride" which I suspect is "...because anything smaller than a car isn't a priority / of interest". (I think that's the issue)
Nor the shady way we've let the food delivery business develop.
However I think we should discuss / argue from something more than just "I see em and don't like em". I don't have numbers myself (speeds / counts) - I can only go on "if they're not going much faster than me it's not 20mph+". There are still few of them in Edinburgh (if be very happy if those were removed, pronto - suspect they're sometimes involved with the more criminal biz). And AFAIK despite the notable growth of the takeaway businesses there hasn't been a slaughter on the streets.
I'd prefer it if the government did sort its act out here but since the new lot seem a bit limited (the last lot were actively going in the wrong direction for several years) classifying rules on throttles may not be the biggest issue.
If they're delivering things I suspect it's far more valuable cargo than a lukewarm curry...The police don't seem to care about either
The nearest large town to me is Preston. I was recently waiting for a bus for 45 minutes following a train trip. I saw numerous illegal electric bikes zooming up and down near the city centre, and about 1/3 were identifiable as food delivery. I didn't have the GoPro, but I had the phone ready to catch the police ignoring the illegals, and the police didn't come past. It is obvious to all that the police could easily catch and confiscate these bikes, as well as prosecute the drug dealers, but they have no intention of doing so
The profit isn't in doing the food delivery. It's a job for somebody who isn't legally allowed to work who prefers to earn something than nothing, with the profit being made by the person who is renting out the illegal bike and account to the illegal worker. The person doing the deliveries is working for well under the minimum wage and it's being exploited for profit by criminals.
This. I suspect this is a lot of it. Grey industry altogether - some illegal workers, some folks scrabbling cash together (perhaps not declaring it all).
Online dealers selling whatever Chinese factories can produce.
And at the top a couple of companies of tech bros saying "we just made an app, we don't have employees".
Pretty sure at multiple points their profits are at the expense of the taxpayer. But hey, all our governments are "open to business".
Not in my experience. I know all the lads working in my area. All are legally here and entitled to work. I don't doubt there are criminal activities but in my direct experience they are few and far between.
You can tell for sure when you see somebody riding up a hill at 30mph without moving his legs.
You don't even have to see them moving, 99 times out of 100 if the hub motor is bigger than a disc rotor then it is illegal.
Indeed. I was just trying to tease out levels of danger. Haven't seen numbers but I'd suggest that is a) dodgy ebike batteries that explode b) > 15.5mph (and they tend to be more 25-30) electric motorbikes. The others I think also could be dealt with but they would appear much less dangerous.
Guys wearing face coverings, no food rucksack, full on electric motorbikes with no plates and rarely motorbike helmets? They're certainly in Edinburgh - though a tiny minority compared to the liveried food guys.
It seems to me there's an excess of outrage from some cyclists probably for the same reason cyclists seem to be a trigger for some drivers / pedestrians - they're "cheating " - plus maybe a "they're giving us *good cyclists* a bad name". The latter - given hopeless reporting - I guess I can understand a little.
Again - I have issues with the whole area but getting things in proportion is a good idea. For example in Edinburgh I've been passed at speed on the paths more times by non- electric motorbikes, and I bet there's still a lot more dealing done using cars. Of course than can change...
The Canterbury one is confused reporting, I think.
It seems only to relate to "reckless delivery riders" not 'cyclists', and seems to be across the town not in pedestrian areas.
But PSPOs in Canterbury have always been a mess.
Obviously there is enormous complaining on FB groups, but it's also a day with D in it.
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