BERYL e-scooters trial in Bournemouth and Poole has been extended until May 2024.

The popular scheme, operated by Beryl, will remain in Bournemouth and Poole until May 2024.

Currently, only under this scheme are e-scooters allowed to be used on public roads and cycle lanes.

The council issued an experimental traffic regulation order to allow Beryl e-scooters to be added to the list of permitted vehicles allowed to travel wherever cycles are permitted.

The council are extending the date to allow for "further gathering of evidence". 

A spokesperson from BCP Council said: "The trial for e-scooters is to be extended to May 31, 2024.  

"The extension will allow for the further gathering of evidence and will build on the findings of the current evaluation."

There are currently more than 500 Beryl e-scooters available for rental in Bournemouth and Poole. 

READ MORE: E-scooter speed restrictions back in Bournemouth town centre

Bournemouth Echo:

Beryl CEO and co-founder, Phil Ellis, said: "We welcome this extension, which will allow for the further gathering of evidence and will build on the findings of the current evaluation.

"E-scooters provide a fun, inexpensive and safe alternative to car travel, reducing congestion and helping to clean up our air, and their arrival is already having a significant environmental impact in lowering harmful carbon emissions.

"In almost 20 months of operation within BCP, our e-scooters have clocked up over half a million journeys over almost two million kilometres. Feedback from our users tells us that almost a third of these journeys (31.1%) have replaced road transport journeys, which equates to over 77 tones of harmful carbon emissions saved.

"The popularity of the e-scooters is largely due to our user-focused approach, which has seen our Customer Team achieve an average customer response time of under two minutes and a customer satisfaction rating of over 88% for 3 years in a row." 

READ MORE: Falling fuel prices push inflation back below 10%

While riding a privately owned e-scooter on public land is currently illegal, there are currently several Department for Transport (DfT) sponsored trials.

Beryl currently operates three of these trials, one of which is in Bournemouth and Poole.

The e-scooter scheme delivered by Beryl began in January 2021. 

E-scooters sold for private use are unregulated and can only be used on private land with the landowner’s permission.

But many of the more than one million private e-scooters sold to date in the UK are being used illegally on the public highway.