“Pissed off” residents use angle grinders to chop up Lime bikes abandoned by “thoughtless” cyclists in private car park

The “frustrated” and “pissed off” residents of a building have declared war on Lime Bikes, taking to angle grinders and chopping up the popular London hire e-bikes after “thoughtless” cyclists kept abandoning them on the private car park.

Some of the residents living at 35 Coombe Road, Norbiton, just in front of the Norbiton train station have reportedly taken up arms, quite literally, as they argue that people going to the station often leave the Lime Bikes in the building’s car park, blocking its entrance.

A member of the group, who wished to stay anonymous, told Your Local Guardian that the bikes had become an “absolute nuisance” in recent weeks, with the people even confronting the cyclists. “It’s just getting out of hand. I’ve had confrontations with the riders themselves, but they’re just not interested. We’ve lost our temper with it,” the person said.

They added that they had regularly contacted Lime Bikes to inform them about the abandoned bikes over the last few weeks, but the private bike hire company only responded after residents resorted to dismembering the bikes and sending them pictures. One of the chopped-up bikes even had a note saying: “Result of continually parking on private property.”

“When we send them a picture of a cut-up bike, within 30 minutes a manager has phoned me up saying they will collect the bikes,” they said. “It’s fly-tipping on private property, that’s how we see it. I’ve just got to a point where I don’t care, I just need these bikes off the property.”

> “Can we do something about the problem of dockless car parking?”: Cycling campaigners blast calls to ban Lime bikes from councils “that have done nothing on active travel for years”, as locals say hire bikes should be “crushed” amid parking concerns

35 Coombe Road, Norbiton (Google Maps)

Lime did end up collecting some of the bikes, but the residents said that cyclists end up coming back to use the park as a “dumping ground”. They are now demanding that the company find a permanent solution to the problem and stop riders from leaving the bikes in the first place.

“We really are pissed off and we’ve had enough,” they said, adding that if Lime fail to resolve the issue, their message to the company is: “Come and collect your bikes, they’re in pieces.”

This isn’t the first time locals have picked up a fight with the popular hire e-bikes which have become a staple of commuting in London for many. In July, residents of the Hounslow borough in London spoke out about what they thought was Lime e-bikes being “deliberately” left in “dangerous places”. Some locals calling for the trial of the bike hire scheme to be paused immediately, with one claiming it was only a matter of time before “somebody gets killed”.

> “Banning bikes won’t help anyone”: Lime Bikes responds to London council leader trying to get rid of “annoying” hire bikes causing and “nuisance” from his borough

And then in September, it was Brent Council that was on the forefront of trying to get rid of the Lime bikes, with council leader Muhammed Butt claiming they were “annoying” and were causing a “nuisance” in the borough.

“It’s their bikes, they need to start taking some accountability for making sure that their assets are kept safe and secure, and they shouldn’t be to the detriment to our residents Brent, people trying to work or go to school, walking down the street, going to our shops, going to our parks and that’s what’s happening at the moment,” Butt said.

However Lime was quite to fire back at the Labour-led council, saying that “local residents in Brent and across the capital use our bikes for essential journeys every day, with 11.5 million commuting trips already taken this year.”

The US-based operator added: “We can enforce mandatory parking rules in Brent, but first we need the council to build a functional network of parking locations. We can provide data and funding to support this process. We want to work with them on this. Banning bikes won't help anyone.”

Lime also said that, due to Brent Council currently having just 10 pilot e-bike parking locations across the borough, it is “not possible to enforce mandatory parking rules”.

Despite this, Butt doubled down on his criticism of Lime’s hire scheme, issuing an ultimatum that all 750 of Lime’s bikes in the borough will be removed by 31 October, unless requests for improved safety measures are acted upon.

However, cycling campaigners in the capital were scathingly critical of Butt’s attack on Lime Bikes — which they believe was coming from a council that has done little to make cycling easier in the borough.

> Lime hire scheme under fire as residents claim e-bikes "deliberately" left in "dangerous places"

“Dockless cycle hire is opening up cycling to more and more diverse Londoners,” the London Cycling Campaign said in response to Butt’s statement. “Councils that have done nothing on active travel for years shouldn’t ‘ban’ bikes, but work with operators who offer funding for appropriately-placed parking.”

“Dockless cycling is an integral part of moving away from an overly car-reliant transport system in the suburbs,” added Tom Houston on Twitter. Chris added: “They’ve given me so much independence, especially seeing as TfL don’t have the money/will to expand the docked cycle hire scheme.”

Meanwhile, Kate argued that, if Lime parking bays are to become mandatory in Brent, “we should make sure that this parking replaces car parking – not pedestrian and parklet space”.

Echoing the LCC’s stance, another user said: “The lack of infrastructure to make cycling safer is noticeable in Brent, along with generally very poor driving standards.”

road.cc has approached Lime Bikes for comment.