The owner of a popular restaurant in north-west London often frequented by celebrities has threatened the local council and hire bike providers Lime and Forest with legal action, claiming that his business has been “besieged” by the e-bikes thanks to the recent installation of a designated parking bay.
Earlier this year, Camden Council installed a dockless bike and e-scooter hire bay outside the rear entrance of Lemonia, a Greek restaurant located on Regent’s Park Road in Primrose Hill, north-west London, since 1979, as part of the local authority’s bid to encourage active travel and improve air quality.
However, Lemonia’s owner Anthony Evangelou has claimed that the parking bay has made deliveries more “dangerous”, negatively impacted the atmosphere of his business, and led to the pavement becoming a “dumping ground” for e-bikes discarded by Lime and Forest users.
“The parking spot was put there a few months ago and it has been getting worse and worse ever since,” Evangelou told MyLondon.
“Bikes are piling up outside our restaurant and they’re not being left in the designated area. Our entrance we use for deliveries is blocked, and drivers can’t get our food to us.”
The 80-year-old said that some delivery companies “have even threatened to not deliver because they can’t carry the stuff into the restaurant as the bikes are in the way”, arguing that the bay has blocked the entrance to the restaurant’s rear gate.
“That can’t happen. We have lots of customers. We need our deliveries,” he said. “Some of the bikes get dumped on the pavement which is dangerous for customers.
“And some are put outside our neighbour’s garage. He’s a doctor. He needs to get out for emergencies and at times hasn’t been able to.”
Evangelou also told the Standard that on one recent Saturday 60 e-bikes were “dumped” across the pavement, blocking their neighbour from accessing his garage.
“We had to help him get his car out,” he said. “Everybody in the area agrees; it’s a narrow street, we’ve got bin collections, a coffee shop opposite. I can see a nasty accident happening.
“Lime say this only happened once, but that’s not true. It’s happening on a daily basis. It’s not a nice sight and it’s making things difficult and dangerous for us, our delivery drivers, and even our neighbours.”
He continued: “It’s frustrating because Camden Council gave us an outdoor space for our restaurant. Why are they ruining it with the bikes?
“Whoever decided this was the place for a parking spot made a bad decision. And that’s alright. Everyone makes mistakes. But mistakes should be rectified.”
Evangelou also called for the parking bay to be moved, and has threatened the local authority with legal action, claiming that the council and the hire bike companies in question have ignored the concerns of residents and business owners, a situation he says is “stressing us out every day”.
“This designated parking area is in the wrong place. It should not be outside a restaurant,” he continued.
“But it also shouldn’t be moved and just impact a different business. Highways teams need to figure out spaces where the bikes can go without disrupting people, such as near traffic light crossings.
“It shouldn’t be that the bike companies benefit and the rest of us get punished. The system shouldn’t work like that.
“We’re seriously considering legal action. Or we’ll stop paying the rent and let them take us to court. It’s a public area – we need them to take the bikes away. There’s no other solution. It’s been a dumping ground. And it’s getting worse.”
Erskine Road in August 2022, before the installation of the dockless hire bike parking bay:
Evangelou concluded by suggesting that the presence of the hire bikes on the street could damage the reputation of the leafy area and his restaurant, which has hosted the likes of Madonna, Kate Winslet, and Harry Styles in the past.
“Name a celebrity, they’ve been here,” he said. “I just think the bikes will bring down the atmosphere of the restaurant. And is this the image we want to give of Primrose Hill, a popular destination to visit?”
However, responding to the Lemonia owner’s concerns, a spokesperson for Camden Council noted that the bike parking bay was installed following a “full consultation” with residents and local businesses.
““A dockless bike and e-scooter hire bay was installed at this location following a full consultation with residents and local businesses, with the aim to encourage active travel and improve local air quality and reduce carbon emissions,” the spokesperson said.
“We will monitor the use of the bay and work with bike providers to ensure that any excess bikes are removed promptly.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Lime said: “We never want our e-bikes to obstruct access for residents or local businesses. The recent good weather has seen record demand and trip numbers in Camden, particularly around the borough’s popular green spaces and hospitality venues, including in Primrose Hill.
“While it’s encouraging to see more people choosing sustainable transport, we understand the frustration when bays become overcrowded. We’ve increased our on-street team working in Camden and are monitoring this location closely to help keep the area accessible for everyone.”
“At Forest, we take all reports of any of our e-bikes causing an obstruction extremely seriously, particularly when it inhibits access or obstructs the public highway,” Forest’s head of policy Alex Berwin said.
“We are committed to operating a safe and responsible service for our users and the communities we operate in.
“Our Operations team are operative 24/7, and we have a dedicated team of on-foot Guardians in Camden who proactively relocate abandoned e-bikes and tidy parking bays. This is in addition to in-app AI technology we have implemented into our app which grades users’ end-of-ride photos and can detect when an e-bike is left irresponsibly, and after which we will warn, fine or suspend their account.”
Of course, this isn’t the first time that the parking of hire bikes in London has attracted criticism.
Last month, Boat Race spectators who travelled to the event in south-west London by Lime Bike were criticised for parking them in residential areas, leading to some local groups decrying the “swarms” of green and white e-bikes “blocking the roads in Putney”.
And in January, Lime responded to the seemingly endless complaints by announcing the launch of a £20m ‘Action Plan’ to improve e-bike parking in London, along with deterring its users from “illegally” cycling on pavements and riding through red lights, while also pledging to support efforts to encourage more Londoners to travel by bike.
17 thoughts on ““Why are they ruining an outdoor space with bikes?” Restaurant owner threatens legal action after business “besieged” by hire bikes, claiming new parking bay “brings down atmosphere””
Is it me, or do we get a lot
Is it me, or do we get a lot of people who complain that infra like this needs to be moved and that they were never consulted, and yet it transpires that there was “a full consultation”…? Why, it’s almost as if they couldn’t be bothered to respond to the consultation in the hope that it would all just go away.
Especially when someone digs
Especially when someone digs out a picture showing exactly the same situations but for cars.
It’s just fear of change.
brooksby wrote:
Well yes. But I think a lot of people genuinely don’t see consultations because they think it means someone comes and knocks on your door ar at least puts something through your letterbox to seek your views, whereas in practice it usually actually means you need to pay attention to that funny notice tied to a lampost, or check your local authority’s consultations webpage.
Same thing happens in Ireland
Same thing happens in Ireland. IBEC claimed they weren’t consulted about changes to roads in Dublin. The council had kept the receipts and that IBEC had been asked and didn’t respond
Looks so much nicer
Looks so much nicer obstructed, including his Dr neighbour’s garage, by white vans.
Delivery drivers would moan
Delivery drivers would moan if there were cars parked there [#]
If they can’t get the back of the van *inside* the delivery point, then its too far.
Delivery drivers don’t *care* if it’s hire bikes – easier to knock out the way than cars.
[#] in case anyone cares, I’m ex- van, and HGV multi-drop as well as tramper.
The restaurant owner is quite
The restaurant owner is quite happy to have the road and part of the pavement outside his restaurant blocked off for seating, but doesn’t want a much smaller area reserved for cycle parking on a side road around the corner.
Ah but they don’t think they
Ah but they don’t think they can make money from that! (They might find they actually could make money from having cycle parking outside / close to them, although it seems lots of UK businesses have yet to realise that fewer motor vehicles might not mean bankruptcy but in fact as good or better business…)
But it’s a celebrity
But it’s a celebrity restaurant. No celebrity would ride a Lime bike.
If the bikes are in a
If the bikes are in a designated parking bay I don’t think they’ve got much basis for complaint.
OTOH I would encourage folks to complain to Lime (or about Lime to e.g. the authorities) about users parking bikes antisocially * – as AFAICS that’s an inevitable consequence of the business model of dockless bike share – almost by design!
However I’d suggest that restaurants and shops first carefully consider whether they might get more benefit from encouraging riders in to their establishments!
* Good luck with that though! Due to the business model (below) the dockless companies aren’t going to be strongly incentivised to care and some LAs have complained they can’t do anything either (I’m not sure how correct that is though).
Private profit from public space with most of the money not coming from the riders anyway. It’s venture capital and/or advertising and/or selling rider’s data in every case I’m aware of. In a previous thread someone posted that indeed most of Lime’s money is from the venture funding.
He does when people do not
He does when people do not bother their backsides putting the bike in the designated area.
On my frequent visits to London I look with dismay with those things just thrown anywhere when finished with.
A lot of the badly dumped
A lot of the badly dumped ones are the ones that have been hacked for a free (but non-assisted) ride, some areas of London you regually hear the repeated ping of a hacked Lime bike going by.
It strikes me that the
It strikes me that the problem here isn’t the existence of a dedicated parking space for Lime Bikes – it’s that there is only one of them in the area.
Not excusing badly abandoned bikes, and people really do need to learn to be more considerate if there is no official parking area near where they are going, or it is full, but more dedicated spaces would help.
I had some sympathy for the owner of the restaurant when complaining about blocking deliveries, but then he went on to complain about bikes lowering the tone, and how it would upset his celebrity clientelle and it’s hard not to conclude he’s an anti-bike idiot who needs to give his head a wobble.
They are a nuisance where
They are a nuisance where they dump the lime bikes, but they are an outstanding business success.
“He’s a doctor. He needs to
“He’s a doctor. He needs to get out for emergencies and at times hasn’t been able to.”
At least you have a chance of moving the bikes out of the way. It’s hard to believe that he’s only ever been blocked in by bikes and never a badly parked vehicle.
bikes wrote:
Agree, but nobody but superheros even considers manually shifting motor vehicles out of the way. If there’s one there it’s just a given.
(Despite the continued acceptance of the pavement parking – well, driving – defence of “yes that is a picture of the car on the pavement … and can you prove a passing rugby team did not lift the car up and put it there?”)
Does it look like there is a
Does it look like there is a valid issue; Yes.
But what is the issue; Oh; Insufficient parking…
So we end up with the same issue as with cars – users dumping the vehicles wherever they can because they can’t possibly be expected to park more than 100m from their destination (though I suspect that the cyclists here are parking at a recorded drop off location, so are a distance from destination…).
With bikes, unlike cars, I suspect we actually have a shortage of parking facilities, and its likely that the %age of space allocated to vehicle storage is a LOT lower for bicycles than cars.
I would note that when I commute into london (1/week so don’t see that much) where there are both docked and bays for dockless bikes, I am fairly sure the docks are SIGNIFICANTLY bigger than the dockless bays.
I expect this is to do with the fact that they have to allocate sufficient docks (and so space) to actually support demand; The idea that if you need docks for X bikes then you will need space for at least X dockless bikes, if not more now.