Council accepts safety promises from Lime

Lime e-scooters will remain on Christchurch streets for now after city officials accepted company assurances a braking issue has been fixed.

The move comes as Mayor Lianne Dalziel and city councillors have been inundated with automated emails over the weekend from Lime supporters.

Auckland and Dunedin city councils ordered the scooters off their streets on Friday because of safety concerns over a software glitch that caused the wheels to randomly lock up, leaving some riders with broken bones and smashed faces after being thrown off mid-ride.

The Christchurch City Council did not follow suit and yesterday said it had received an assurance from Lime that it believed the issue with braking had been fixed.

‘‘They have also advised that any reported defective e-scooters have been removed from service,’’ council planning and strategic transport head David Griffiths said. ‘‘We will continue to monitor the situation, as will Lime, to ensure the scooters remain safe for use.’’

Lime spokeswoman Kate Cullen would not say if any Lime scooters in Christchurch had been affected by the braking issue.

The council will decide on Thursday whether to issue the California-based company a 12-month permit to operate a fleet

of 1000 scooters, up from the existing 700.

It was proposed the permit would cost $86.25 per scooter per year. The fee was based on the amount of space the scooters would take up on the footpath, which had been calculated as half a square metre.

A city-wide limit of 1600 e-scooters was being proposed by the council, leaving room open for another operator to put 600 scooters on the streets.

Lime launched a nationwide campaign on the weekend asking its users to send emails to councillors urging them to support Lime remaining in their city.

Christchurch users opening up the Lime app were greeted with a message stating: ‘‘We need your support.’’

Those who then clicked into the option were asked to ‘‘take a moment to share your support for Lime with Christchurch’s mayor and councillors’’.

‘‘You might also be aware that Lime is currently only a trial in Christchurch. We want to be around for the long run, helping you get from A to B in a simple, affordable and fun way,’’ the message states.

Councillor Sara Templeton said she had received nearly 200 almost identical emails from people supporting Lime scooters.

About a dozen people had used the template to say they did not support Lime e-scooters in Christchurch. She found the emails ‘‘unnecessary and irritating’’ given the council’s support for the scooters.

The email said Christchurch riders had made more than

580,000 trips, with many replacing car trips.

Dalziel said she had received

220 emails from Lime. She did not have a problem with groups providing such a mechanism to communicate a view to councillors before a vote was taken.