THE problem of Lime’s hire bikes being dumped on streets in Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia reared its head again on Monday, as one of the company’s policy representatives fielded questions from councillors on the Camden side of the West End neighbourhood.

Harrington listened in to a “scrutiny committee” as politicians described with varying degrees of thespian rage how mad the pavement obstructions made them.

Bloomsbury councillor Rishi Madlani for one was furious that his time pushing his nephew around in a pushchair had been ruined because he had been distracted by the need to report bikes and scooters not being left in the right place.

He said councillors’ phones were full of pictures of nuisance parking and they wanted to know what the company was doing about it.

The figures actually do match the anecdotes as one in ten rides ends in bikes not being left in designated bays.

Camden has decided it will try impounding them and we’ll see how that works.

But the council is also offering Lime and Human Forest, another bike hire company, a two-year extension on its operating licences in the borough.

More than three million uses have been recorded and the popularity for them is obvious.

In that sense it all made you wonder what Monday’s session could really achieve. Lime’s rep took a pummelling on the dumped bikes rage and some safety issues, and came back with promises to listen and discuss matters internally.

But it could have been any session from the past two years. The councillors have made all of these complaints before and nothing has really changed – and being shouted at for an hour in a stuffy Town Hall room is a small price to pay for keeping a lucrative hire bike operation on the road.

It was interesting that nobody ever asks about the cost for users, perhaps because all of the panel have enough money not to worry about how much each of their own rides cost.

To be frank, using Lime can be expensive for others and the fees are prohibitive to even more.

That means a whole raft of London does not get to enjoy the benefits of zipping through town, pretending to be healthy on a powered e-bike – but does have to suffer the annoying flipside of blocked walkways and clacking hacked cycles.

The next time a company policy rep is called before a committee like this, they should be asked how they will make the service more affordable for all on price.

Do it, even if it’s just another point to nod at, “recognise” and take back, or, more likely, never to be mentioned again as the ink dries on new permissions.