South Woodham Ferrers' Neighbourhood Policing Team will be carrying out targeted patrols in the town to seize illegally ridden e-scooters.

It is in response to concerns by members of the public about privately owned e-scooters being ridden in the town, particularly by young people.

Sergeant Matt Dalby, from the Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: "It is illegal to ride privately owned e-scooters in a public place as it is not currently possible to get insurance for them.

"Anti-social use of e-scooters – whether they be privately owned or rented – is not acceptable and we will look to take action against it.

"I need the public to continue to report issues and incidents to us because it helps us build a picture of where we need to focus our resourcing."

E-scooters are classed as motor vehicles under the Road Traffic Act 1988, meaning the rules that apply to motor vehicles also apply to e-scooters.

This means that users must have a license and insurance. There are two ways of using an e-scooters, either by privately owning one or my renting one through an authorised rental scheme, like VOI.

Private e-scooter users must only use the vehicle on private land, with permission of the landowner.

There are schemes in place in Essex where you can rent e-scooters to travel around, but they are licensed and insured by the rental company, and riders must have entered their driving licence details into the relevant app to use them.

You can read more information about e-scooters on the Essex Police website.