ESSEX residents have been invited to have their say on e-scooter trials taking place across the county.

A Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) proposal has been made and is under consideration for further trials to take place across Essex.

A TRO is a legal order which enables the county council, as the highway authority, to manage traffic in Essex. Examples include parking restrictions, speed limits, and one-way streets.

Spin, the micromobility unit of Ford Motor Company, has been running the trials as part of Essex County Council’s Safer Greener Healthier campaign.

In just five months since the first trial launched in Basildon, more than 100,000 journeys have been completed on the e-scooters.

In a statement, Essex Council said: “Following a successful department bid, Essex County Council has partnered with SPIN to trial for a maximum of a 12 month period permitting electric scooters to use road spaces restricted for certain vehicle classes and types.

Gazette: Trials have been ongoing in Colchester Trials have been ongoing in Colchester

“This will encourage the promotion of alternative travel measures in line with Government guidance to ease the burden on the transport network and provide additional capacity.”

Trials are now running in Basildon, Chelmsford, Colchester and Clacton with a slightly different scheme, called Spin+, also running in Brentwood and Braintree.

To meet increasing demand there are currently more than 500 free-floating e-scooters in operation in Essex, which means they can be parked in most places.

Spin says in Essex more than 100,000 journeys have now taken place on the e-scooters.

Formal feedback will also be collected by the Department for Transport later this year. This will be part of the nation-wide feedback collection of all the e-scooter scheme trials that are running in the UK managed by various operators. 

Residents can email their comments and/or objections to the council at trafficregulation.order@essexhighways.org.