POLICE in Chester have reminded residents that the use of the new e-scooters in the town are for those aged 18 and above only.

It comes after officers in Upton had to speak to a child who had been using one of the Ginger e-scooters, and had used his mother's driving licence to gain access.

In response, Ginger said access had been granted by an adult who had passed the age and licence verification processes, which used facial recognition technology, before handing the scooter over to an underage person.

The e-scooters were rolled out in Chester as part of a year-long trial in conjunction with Cheshire west and Chester Council on December 21, 2020, and are designed to encourage greener travel methods.

People can hire the electric scooters at a cost of £2 for every 20 minutes of journey time, and 50p per 10 minutes of pausing time.

The trial is part of a Department for Transport (DfT) initiative that was approved by the Government earlier last year.

But police have urged those wanting to use the e-scooters that they have to be 18 or over and have either their own provisional or full driving licence to be able to use them legally, as the rules of the road still apply.

Ginger added, in response, that this type of offending was "rare for our users to do but something we take extremely seriously" and sought information to block the user responsible for the illegal act.

To access the e-scooters, users need to download the Ginger Shared Transport App from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.

Scooters will continue to charge their user until they are parked properly in a designated e-scooter parking area, and the ride is ended on the app.