‘Naughty child’: Mayor slaps parking ban on hire e-scooters

Greens councillors Sophie Wade and Edward Crossland voted against the final motion – which was not recommended by council officers – as well as Labor Deputy Mayor Sarah McKenzie.

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Wade unsuccessfully attempted to amend the motion to defer the two-metre rule until scooter contracts were up for renegotiation in April. She argued the parking ban would render the scheme unusable and may lead to the operators leaving Yarra.

“Most of Fitzroy, all of Cremorne, most of Richmond … are out of action,” she said.

Scooter user Rory Brown said geofencing 50 per cent of streets had safety implications, “as you can be forced to park at the end of your street, as opposed to near your front door at night”.

But Jolly said the prospect of the companies leaving Yarra “left him cold”.

“I don’t really care,” he said.

Four councillors – Jolly, Sharon Harrison, Evangeline Aston and Kenneth Gomez – were successfully elected as “independents” but ran under the banner Yarra For All together and pledged to ban scooters from footpaths if elected at the recent October elections, among a laundry list of other initiatives.

Two other successful independent councillors – Andrew Davies and Meca Ho – are now voting with the group to make a majority bloc on the nine-person council.

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Jolly hit back at governance questions raised by some members of the public about a now-deleted online newsletter written on behalf of the bloc of councillors which was published last week and committed to the footpath ban before the council meeting.

“The independents won in most of the wards. So the way it works in Australia is majority rules, and the majority will implement their program,” he said.

“Whether people like that or not – they have another opportunity in four years’ time to vote us out. But for now, we’re running the show … we’re making no apologies to anybody.”

Growing complaints about parking, footpath riding and other safety concerns led the City of Melbourne to abruptly end its partnership with hire companies Lime and Neuron in August.

That left Yarra and the City of Port Phillip as the only Melbourne council areas with scooter schemes operating. However, Merri-bek, Darebin and Moonee Valley councils have all said they intend to introduce them.

Lime and Neuron have been contacted for comment.

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