Since agreeing to take action in March 2025, Edinburgh Council’s leader has been challenged over whether the city has done anything to address reckless use of e-bikes and e-scooters
Conservative councillor Marie-Clair Munro asked Labour council leader Jane Meagher at Thursday’s full council meeting if she could name a single action taken since then.
She also referenced an incident on Tuesday (16) last week where an elderly woman was struck down by a ‘Surron-style’ e-motorbike in a hit-and-run and taken to hospital.
Cllr Munro had brought forward a motion on misuse of the vehicles in March last year, which led to the council pledging to take action on it.
She asked Cllr Meagher: “Following the recent hit and run, does the council leader believe that the actions taken since March 2025 have been sufficient?
“And can she outline what tangible improvements to enforcement, rider accountability, and most importantly pedestrian safety have resulted from that work?
“In particular, can she identify any specific measure taken by this administration since 2025 that has improved rider accountability and put our pedestrians’ safety first?”
Cllr Meagher called the hit-and-run ‘tragic’, and said she understood the victim was still in hospital.
She said she would take Cllr Munro’s question ‘offline’ to get information for her, and did not mention any specific actions that the council had taken since then.
“I think we’ve all experienced quite hair-raising incidents in relation to e-bikes and e-scooters.
“I’ll take that off-line and get concrete information if that helps.
“But I think we need to encourage Police Scotland and think about what kind of sanctions we have against people who ride or scoot extremely dangerously.”
In the incident last Tuesday, police said that three ‘surron-style’ electric motorbikes were involved.
They added that they were working to trace the three riders, and asked anyone with information to contact 101, quoting incident 1650 of Tuesday, 16 June, 2026.
By Joseph Sullivan Local Democracy Reporter
