Teesside Mayor bids for e-scooter trials to help North East "get back to work sooner"

A North East region is bidding to be the location of a new electric scooter rental scheme.

Mayor Ben Houchen has said that he wants Tees Valley to be one of the first regions in the UK to trial e-scooters on public roads.

This follows the announcement that the government wants trials of the scooters to be fast tracked to help encourage more people to avoid public transport following the coronavirus.

Currently e-scooters are legal in many other countries around the world but are banned in the UK under existing traffic laws.

The mayor has said that introducing the scooters will help the region get back to work sooner.

Ben Houchen commented: “The coronavirus pandemic has had an unprecedented impact of all parts of our lives, it’s clear that social distancing is going to be with us for a prolonged period of time in order to reduce the risk of a second peak in the virus.

“With this in mind it is absolutely right that we look at alternative forms of transport that are compatible with social distancing.

“As a region we are already becoming a pioneer in clean energy; we have a reputation as a centre of excellence for offshore wind and we are delivering the world’s first industrial scale us of carbon capture, utilisation and storage with the ground-breaking Net Zero Teesside project.

“Now I want Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool to be home to a new e-scooter trial.

“Getting the hard-working people of Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool back to work in a safe and responsible way will be key to our regions recovery.

“Trialing e-scooters here will mean we can get back to work sooner - supporting our amazing local businesses and safeguarding jobs.”