Ministers are seeking to end the “wild west” of parked e-bikes blocking pavements, as they attempt to crack down on antisocial behaviour such as cyclists jumping red lights.

The consultation, led by the Department for Transport, will aim to establish national standards on issues including parking, ending the current patchwork of agreements between individual bike companies and councils.

While some areas enforce rules that mean shared bikes – such as those operated by Lime, Forest and Voi – can only be left in designated parking bays, elsewhere the rules are looser, prompting complaints about bikes blocking pavements, particularly for wheelchair users, people with pushchairs and those with impaired vision.

It will also look at antisocial and illegal riding, for example, people jumping lights or the use of bikes by those who are underage or drunk.

The plans will also examine guidelines for fleet sizes to ensure certain areas are not overcrowded and possible requirements for operators to have insurance, so someone hit by a rider on a hired e-bike can claim compensation.

Another part of the consultation will look at whether councils and mayors should be given powers over the fees charged to rent bikes, and whether companies should share data to improve enforcement and transport planning.

Since arriving in the UK in 2018, shared e-bike systems, of which Lime is by some way the biggest, have expanded rapidly, especially in London. More than 2.6 million Britons used an e-bike share scheme in the year to September 2025, according to one estimate.

There is evidence that shared e-bikes are used by a broader demographic range of riders than traditional bikes, in part because of the electric assistance, but also because they do not require somewhere secure to park.

The DfT argues that the bikes are growing in importance for urban transport, but that the lack of any central oversight has created difficulties, noting that the companies themselves have called for more regulation.

The proposed changes would be “a small but important everyday fix to make our streets safer”, Andy Burnham said. The prime minister added: “E-bikes can make getting around that bit easier, but when they block pavements or are used irresponsibly they can be a real frustration.

“I want to sort that by giving communities more control over where they are parked and making sure companies and riders play by the rules.”

Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, said: “Shared e-bike schemes have revolutionised the way people travel around our towns and cities. They are easy to use, get us active and help reduce emissions, but we need to make sure they work with the communities where they operate.

“That’s why we are taking decisive action to give local leaders the power to stop nuisance parking, tackle antisocial behaviour and make journeys safer.”

There are parallel efforts in London under which the DfT would devolve power to the mayor, Sadiq Khan, and Transport for London to unify e-bike regulations, which are currently the responsibility of individual boroughs and vary significantly.

Khan said: “The ‘wild west’ approach to dockless e-bikes cannot continue. While these services are helping thousands more Londoners to cycle, their rapid growth has also brought challenges around safety, inconsiderate parking and the lack of data needed to properly manage them.

“I’ve been calling for powers to better manage dockless e-bike schemes since 2017, when the first schemes arrived in London, so I welcome the government’s plans to give cities the powers they need to do this.”

My partner, John Taylor, who has died from cancer aged 74, was a leading figure in the field of community, rural and accessible transport. He made practical improvements in the lives of many people affected by privatisation, poor planning and reduced public funding of transport services.

While volunteering in Manchester in the 1970s John found minimal resources available for those who needed help to access his community buses – makeshift steps and ramps of milk crates and wooden planks were the norm. Plugging this gap became the foundation of his work.

He co-founded Manchester Community Transport (MCT) and in 1984 was founding director of Community Transport Services, later Community Transport Association UK (CTA), the national advisory body for transport-related charities. In the 90s he was instrumental in devising MiDAS (the Minibus Driver Awareness Scheme). In 1994 MiDAS was adopted nationally as a training scheme for volunteer minibus drivers; 30 years later, CTA UK issued its one millionth driver assessment certificate.

Born in Cambridge, John was the youngest of three children of Reginald Taylor, a civil servant, and his wife, Winifred (nee Stamford). The family moved to south London when John was a few weeks old. He was a gifted student at Whitgift school, Croydon, where his love of a challenge and wide open spaces led him to embrace mountaineering and climbing. He subsequently climbed in the UK, the Alps, Pyrenees and Himalayas; his final “big” expedition was an ascent of Ama Dablam, in Nepal, in 2007.

In 1971 he went to New College, Oxford, to study philosophy, politics and economics, followed by a year as an articled clerk in London, with the intention of pursuing a legal career. He then moved to Manchester to do postgraduate study in the sociology of law at Manchester University and stayed in the north for the rest of his life. Voluntary jobs led him into the transport sector, first with MCT and later as a freelance transport consultant, which is when I first met him, working together in Levenshulme.

We moved to Lancaster in 1995, and around this time John became co-director of the TAS (Transport Advisory Service) Partnership. He would often take on far too much and his reports were invariably delivered at the last minute. But once finished, he loved to communicate his ideas; his colourful shirt and tie combos gave him a standout presence during presentations.

Outside work, he enjoyed his vast music collection, which covered classical, jazz, blues and his beloved Grateful Dead. When the children expressed interest in Meccano, he drove to Hampshire to collect a huge quantity bought on eBay.

A loyal fan of Morecambe FC, he was active in the Shrimps Trust supporters’ society, leading the post-match litter-picking team and helping them acquire MiDAS certification for their away travel.

He is survived by me, our sons, Robin and Jonathan, his stepson, Ashley, and his sister, Fran, and brother, Francis.

A government-chartered plane taking Andy Burnham to a Commonwealth summit in the Caribbean made a stop-off in Manchester to collect him, Downing Street has said.

The decision, which will have been more financially and environmentally costly than if the prime minister had travelled to London, leaves him open to accusations of hypocrisy after Labour repeatedly criticised Rishi Sunak for his use of private planes and helicopters for domestic travel when he was the prime minister.

The plane, which the government leases for prime ministerial travel, left Stansted airport outside London at about 6am on Monday en route to Antigua and Barbuda, where the Commonwealth heads of government summit begins on Tuesday.

It carried officials and a handful of pool media reporters, but not Burnham. He and his wife were picked up at Manchester about 30 minutes later. The plane stayed on the ground for an hour before setting off via Canada for a refuelling stop.

Asked why the travel logistics had worked this way, and how much it had cost to add an extra leg to the trip, Burnham’s official spokesperson said: “Decisions related to travel are made on security and operational grounds, neither of which we comment on. We are transparent about travel costs. They will be published in the usual way.”

Burnham had been in Scotland on Friday, before going to Manchester to work from No 10 North that evening, the spokesperson said. Burnham, whose family home is in Greater Manchester, routinely works in the city on Fridays and spends the weekend there.

Asked if this represented value for money, the spokesperson said: “I’ve just set out our position, and I’ll just refer you back to that.” Asked if Burnham simply did not want the effort of returning to London, he replied: “I don’t accept that.”

Prime ministerial flights usually leave from Stansted, where there is a section of the airport for private flights that allows for extra security.

As prime minister, Sunak regularly used helicopters to travel to events in places for which rail travel would have been almost as quick, including Southampton, Dover, the West Midlands and Essex.

When Labour took office it cancelled the £40m helicopter contract used for the travel as part of what Keir Starmer’s government said was an effort to undo “14 years of rot” under the Conservatives.

Labour also questioned why Sunak used an RAF jet to fly to Scotland when scheduled flights were available, given the ministerial code says private planes should only be used when there is no alternative.

The shadow Cabinet Office minister, Mike Wood, said on Monday: “Labour promised a crackdown on private jet use. Yet when it comes to Air Miles Andy, it seems to be one rule for him and another for everyone else.”