00:00These for hire scooters behind me will soon become a thing of the past here in Melbourne
00:07after the City Council voted six councillors to four to scrap the contract with the share
00:13hire operators Neuron and Lime.
00:16And we've heard from Lord Mayor Nicholas Rees.
00:18He says that even though he was originally a supporter of the hire e-scooter trial when
00:24it was first introduced back in 2022, he has, like many residents and traders, become
00:30completely fed up with rule breakers who pose a safety hazard to pedestrians and also litter
00:37the CBD streets with abandoned e-scooters after they've completely finished their journey.
00:43This is what he had to say about last night's decision.
00:47This was an opportunity to end the havoc on Melbourne's footpaths and make our city safe
00:52again.
00:53He says that he moved this motion in Council last night because it had become completely
00:59shameful just how dangerous these e-scooters were on the city streets and also on footpaths
01:05with many people riding double dink, also riding without helmets and also weaving in
01:12and out of pedestrians on the footpaths.
01:15And this Council heard from the Head of Emergency at the Royal Melbourne Hospital who gave a
01:21submission that up to 40 people were presenting at hospital every month as a result of e-scooter
01:27crashes and more than 50% of those had head injuries with an estimated cost of up to $2
01:34million in health care costs.
01:37Now these two operators have 30 days to remove them and Nicholas Rees was asked whether or
01:44not there could be potential legal action.
01:46He says that the contract is very clear.
01:49It's there in black and white, that Council can decide to reject these contracts at any
01:55time with simply 30 days' notice and also that there is a very sensible shared bike
02:02scheme that has far fewer consequences in terms of safety than the e-scooters have posed.
02:09But it comes just three weeks after the Victorian Government decided to make e-scooters legal
02:16and Nicholas Rees was actually standing alongside the Minister when that decision was made.
02:21However that does mean though that we will be seeing private e-scooters still on the
02:27city streets and also they'll be continuing to be operated in other municipalities where
02:34these shared hire operations continue like the City of Yarra and also the City of Port
02:40Phillip which is the St Kilda Beach area, also the regional city of Ballarat.
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