Ron Bailey - the assistant to Lord Foster and the Parliamentary Advisor to the charity Electrical Safety First (ESF).
ESF and Lord Foster launched this campaign in June last year to ensure the safety of Lithium-ion batteries. The re was a webinar held by ESF on 30th December outlining the issues and the campaign, which is designed to save lives and cut down on fires and save damage to property. There are four issues
• That e bikes and e scooters and the Lithium-ion batteries used to propel them are subject to independent testing before being marketed. Currently this is not the case.
• That regulation are made to ensure the safe disposal of the batteries. Currently this is not the case resulting in fires in bin lorries and waste disposal sites.
• That charging kits and conversion kits used on the bikes are also safe. Currently regulations do not cover this.
• That online marketplaces through which many goods are sold nowadays are subject to the same safety regulations as high street shops. Currently this is not the case.
This campaign has the support of a large number of organisations (see attached) including the NALC and the SLCC as well as 500 individual local Councils, and we are already discussing this with Ministers – who are not unfriendly. We feel, therefore, that the support of local councils will keep the momentum going and hope you will be able to back this campaign.