John Mair chaired a My Jericho debate on e-bikes and e-scooters with guest speaker Peter Hitchens at St Barnabas Church in Jericho. Here he writes about the event.

Mail on Sunday columnist, Controversialist and Oxford resident Peter Hitchens was pulling no punches in a My Jericho debate on e-bikes and e-scooters on Thursday.

Mr Hitchens is no fan of them. He talked of the "wasp of smugness" as a rider "masked like a bandit" approached him with the "low clean whine" of an e-bike and nearly knocked him off the pavement in the Marston Road.

He wants them and electric scooters licenced.

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All mopeds and motorbikes have been subject to law since 1934 and he sees no reason why this should not apply to these more modern forms of transport.

He claims the riders tend to be behave badly and there is no effective form of ID to complain or report them to the law.

The gap in that has led to "anarchy on the streets of Oxford and London" where he travels to, and uses his pedal cycle, every week day.

Mr Hitchens claimed the number of accidents and fatalities caused by e-bikes is unknown. He had spent a week trying-and failing-to get figures from the government.

There are none. He warned Oxford pedestrians and cyclists to look forward to the "Armageddon of the coming of Lime bikes". Some are, indeed, already here.

Supposedly with no official permission. He has seen Lime in action in London where they "lie about the streets".

(Image: Contributed) In defence, Richard Scrace of Cyclox pointed to some of the joys of using e-bikes.

He had taken his family on a Welsh holiday this summer using an e bike up and down hills and dales

They were more fun, easier to ride as he got older and benefitted many. E-bikes got people out of their cars, eased traffic congestion and provided great health benefits. There was little to dislike.

Mr Scrace was referring to legal e-bikes-those with a motor limited to 15.5 miles an hour as the law dictates. He was on less secure grounds on what he called ‘the sub set’ of illegal bikes which had been doctored to go faster.

Many of them take away food delivery bikes. Some went to 40 mph and faster.

Recently he has been offered the address of a man in Reading who would soup up his 12-year-old e-bike for about £400.

Mr Scrace was firmly against any regulation of the legal bikes, Mr Hitchens firmly in favour. He had resigned from Cyclox in 2019 on this matter of principle. Both agreed that the current law was lacking and needed revision.

They disagreed on how that might be done.

Plainly this was a debate that needed to be had. The 30-strong audience joined in with some vigour and voice.

The event raised £100 for the St Barnabas Church pantry.