Yarra City Council last night approved changing its contracts with e-scooter operators Lime and Neuron to increase the daily fee from $1 to $5 per day, to ensure that the scheme is no longer subsidised by ratepayers.

“Ratepayers from the City of Yarra should not be picking up the tab for the mess left by two very large and very profitable multinational companies,” Yarra City Council Mayor Stephen Jolly said.

“If it were a nightclub or a pizza shop that didn’t clean its own mess, there wouldn’t — nor should there be — an expectation that Council would do it for them using ratepayer money.”

Before the contract extensions, the Yarra City Council was spending approximately three-quarters of a million dollars a year on the e-scooter scheme, largely because of the resourcing and costs required to meet the community’s expectations on compliance.

“E-scooters have continued to be the source of feedback and complaints to Council,” Mayor Jolly said. “We’ve even been sent to VCAT by a disability access advocate because when e-scooters are dumped they make our streets inaccessible.

“In turn, we have had to implement measure such as geofencing to manage the parking of e-scooters, increased levels of enforcement, as well as meeting with residents and business owners to ensure the scheme is operating appropriately.”

Council will start discussions to change the agreement with Lime and Neuron for the six-months remaining in the trial period contract, before expressions of interest are sought for a permanent scheme. Should the increase not be accepted, e-scooters may need to cease operating in Yarra.