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8 Jan 2025 | |
Written by Peter Eland | |
Press Release |
The Bicycle Association today submitted this formal complaint to the BBC:
Complaint: Panorama - E-bikes: the battle for our streets
Dear BBC,
I write for the Bicycle Association, the trade association for the UK cycle industry, representing ca 140 companies, including most of the reputable UK companies who supply safe, fully road-legal e-bikes. These companies include household names and well-known high-street retailers. You can view our full member list here.
We wish to register a formal complaint about the programme “Panorama - E-bikes: the battle for our streets” presented by Adrian Chiles, broadcast on BBC 1 on the 6th January 2025.
Our main concerns are:
The reputable UK cycle and e-bike industry fully supports all and any measures to enforce the current very clear legislation and to remove illegal e-motorbikes from our streets. We also call for reforms of the food delivery sector to address use of illegal e-motorbikes by delivery riders.
However, these issues are entirely distinct from the road legal e-bike category, which offers many health and mobility benefits for the general public, including many disabled people.
We consider that this programme has, by confusing these issues, both failed to properly inform the public and also unjustifiably damaged the road legal e-bike sector through misrepresentation.
We urge the BBC to:
Yours sincerely,
Peter Eland
Technical & Policy Director
Bicycle Association
www.bicycleassociation.org.uk
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