Three e-scooters have been pulled from the Rochdale Canal — after being dumped in by vandals.
They were dragged out of the water using magnets — but one of the rescuers has called on Lime, the company which owns the scooters, to be ‘held to account for failing to recover their property’.
“We now have three Lime e-scooters dumped in the Rochdale Canal near lock 49,” Steven Parker, posting on the Rochdale Branch Canal Group on Saturday (June 26) via social media, said.
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“Surely, our beloved canal is not the place to 'park' them. Who knows what environmental damage the submerged batteries are causing to wildlife.
“Lime must be held to account for failing to recover their property in a reasonable time scale and should be charged every time one of their e-scooters is recovered from the canal.
“It's simply not good enough to hire them out and not collect them after use. Does the tracker even work under water? A very sad state of affairs indeed.”
Steven also praised the work of Scott Bryant, a magnet fisher, who freed the submerged scooters.
“[Scott] walked along the Rochdale Canal towpath from Castleton to help remove the dumped Lime e-scooter from above lock 49,” he added.
“He was very professional, found and removed the scooter very quickly, and even transported it back to Castleton in his converted hand truck. It will be stored safely in his garage until Lime decides to collect it.”
In response, a Lime spokesperson thanked the work of Steven and Scott — and urged the public to report any Lime scooters that have been dumped.
“Lime would like to thank the Rochdale Branch Canal Group and Patriot Magnets for resolving this incident of vandalism,” a spokesperson said.
“In the first instance, we would always recommend that local residents get in touch with Lime directly to report any abandoned or vandalised vehicles for collection via our on the ground operations team who use specialist tools to retrieve vehicles, but we are hugely appreciative of the actions of both groups recovering this scooter, and will be contacting them to pick up the vehicle and make sure we cover any costs incurred.
“With almost 10,000 rides safely delivered to date, Lime is proud of the service it is delivering in Rochdale. We have invested significantly in rider education as well as hardware and software safeguards on all our scooters, like maximum speed limits, GPS tracking and rider verification to prevent misuse, with the small number of Rochdale users who have behaved antisocially receiving permanent bans from using Lime.
“We are committed to working with Rochdale Borough Council and Transport for Greater Manchester to create a cleaner, greener Rochdale for all.”
