E-SCOOTERS will be a regular site on the streets of Basildon in less than two weeks time as a trial gets underway.

County council bosses have confirmed the trial - which will see workers encouraged to hire e-scooters for the last leg of their journey - will begin on December 7.

The scooters, capped at 15mph, can be collected from nine pick up and charging points in the centre of Basildon.

But after initial plans said the trial would focus on Pitsea, some councillors are far from impressed.

Craig Rimmer, Tory councillor of Pitsea south east, feared Pitsea “had been forgotten.”

He said: “Pitsea would have been the ideal place to trial these.

“It’s far less busier than the centre of town. There should have been a charging point at Pitsea train station.

“It is only a trial at the moment but nobody in Pitsea will get to use them.”

Four “no parking zones” have been outlined including at the Ford Dunton test track, Gloucester Park, the Eastgate shopping centre, as well as an area near London Road, in Pitsea, close to Aldi and the Range.

Geo-fencing technology will stop the e-scooters from travelling outside the permitted zone and onto busy roads such as the A127.

Kerry Smith, deputy leader of Basildon Council, has slammed the idea, and called for reconsideration of the boundary lines. He said: “We’re not set up for these in Basildon.

“If people are in the way of traffic, that’s extremely dangerous.

“Our roads aren’t safe enough either. Cyclists have to swerve out the way of potholes.”

A spokesman from Essex County Council, who chose Spin, backed by car company Ford, added: “The map does not mean that all roads within that boundary will open to e-scooters. E-scooters cannot legally be used on any road with a speed limit above 30 mph.

“If the limitations of the e-scooters speed put riders at risk on main roads, geofencing technology will be used to stop e-scooters travelling on these roads.”