E-scooters being ridden on public streets in Kent should be seized and crushed, says the man responsible for overseeing policing in the county.

The electric vehicles are illegal to ride on any land not privately owned - unless in a town or city covered by a government trial.

The conclusion of Kent’s only pilot scheme, in Canterbury, in November last year signalled the end of any lawful e-scooter use on public land across the county.

But Kent Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Matthew Scott fears people will start to see the vehicles as “effectively decriminalised” as they continue to be ridden illegally.

He was challenged about the issue during a meeting of the Kent and Medway Police and Crime Panel on Tuesday.

“The panel knows my view on e-scooters – seize them and crush them because they are not legal on any public land in Kent now that we don’t have the trial down at Canterbury,” Mr Scott said.

“That would be one simple solution, but my expectation is that [riders] are dealt with as well, and that will be up to [Kent Police] to deal with.

“I don’t want the perception to rise that they have been effectively decriminalised when in fact they are not road safe, not road legal and should not be on our roads.

“We’ll continue the messaging around that, and I will hold the force to account on all aspects of this question to make sure we don’t have a summer blighted by anti-social vehicles”

Mr Scott was responding to a question from Gravesham council’s deputy leader Shane Mochrie-Cox (Lab), who says e-scooters are “perceived to have been decriminalised by lack of attendance and perceived lack of action”.

The Gravesham member added that enforcement against riders is “a postcode lottery depending on resourcing, allocation and whatever a particular borough commander is able to allocate at the time”.

He also highlighted how he and other councillors receive correspondence from residents asking for action to be taken on e-scooters, despite the responsibility lying with Kent Police, and not the local authority.

The machines are considered Personal Light Electric Vehicles, so are treated as motor vehicles and subject to the same rules as cars, mopeds and motorbikes.

Former university librarian Sarah Carter, from Canterbury, is among those who believe the “the genie is out of the bottle” for the e-scooter craze.

The 80-year-old was knocked down last summer by a man legally riding a vehicle hired from Bird - the company that oversaw the controversial two-year trial in the city.

Mrs Carter suffered a broken wrist, cracked jaw and fractured cheekbone in the collision.

Five months later Kent County Council refused an offer from the Department for Transport to continue the pilot scheme until May 2024.

But e-scooters continue to be seen on the city’s streets, and elsewhere in the county, with Mrs Carter blaming a lack of police patrols.

“Part of me says potentially it’s quite a good form of transport if the infrastructure’s there, but I think there should be far more policing of infractions at the moment,” she said.

“There’s no police around to do anything.

“I do see[scooters] around quite often; you can imagine that my experience has left me super cautious and actually quite scared a lot of the time.

“There are more and more of them – and we mustn’t forget electric bikes as well.

“Fast and silent - it’s a recipe for danger I think.”

Mrs Carter is not the only Canterbury resident to have been seriously injured in a collision with an e-scooter.

In June 2021, then 19-year old Joshua Mpia pleaded guilty to dangerous driving after hitting mum-of-three Pauline Lilford - leaving her with a broken arm and leg - while riding his privately owned vehicle.

Mpia was handed a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, along with a two-year driving ban, and was ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work.

Kent Police’s head of prevention, Superintendent Pete Steenhuis, says, where necessary, officers take “proportionate action” to deal with e-scooter riders.

However, he says last year the force received not even one report a day about the issue.

“Police officers across the county have engaged with individuals on the street and in schools to provide advice,” he said.

“Should an officer come across an e-scooter being used incorrectly, they will first seek to educate the rider and encourage them to adhere to the legislation.

“This approach has helped to educate people, especially young people, about the dangers of their use.

“Figures show that last year we received fewer than one report a day across the county, with some areas such as Sevenoaks only receiving three reports all year.”

“The number of reported incidents overall fell countywide from 355 in 2021 to 205 in 2022.

Supt Steenhuis urged would-be riders to familiarise themselves with law before buying an e-scooter, adding that Kent Police seized 190 of the vehicles in the two years up to April.

“If riders refuse to follow advice, or if they are seen using an e-scooter in a dangerous or anti-social manner, we will use our powers to seize the vehicle and take further enforcement action where appropriate,” he said.