Brent Council receives fewer than one official complaint a week about Lime bikes, new figures reveal.

The statistics - obtained through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request - appear to contradict council leader Muhammed Butt's claims that the council is receiving “repeated, regular complaints” about bikes being left strewn across paths.

But the council claims the figures “mask the full extent” of the issues Lime bikes cause, as complaints are often received through other channels.

Lime has been instructed by the council to remove its dockless bikes in the borough by the end of this month unless it addresses safety concerns over poorly parked and abandoned bikes.

The FoI figures show that just 19 reports about Lime Bikes being left across paths and roads were received through the council’s complaints system last year.

So far this year, 36 reports have been made – which equates to around one a week.

This does not include concerns raised directly with Lime, as well as with the council by phone, social media and emails to individual councillors and officers, the authority said.

Cllr Butt said: “These figures mask the full extent of the issues with Lime in Brent as they are only one part of the story; and do not include the number of concerns that residents are raising with Lime directly, not the council.

"You only need to take a walk down almost any street in Brent to see that badly parked Lime bikes are a widespread problem that needs resolving by all parties.

“The council also regularly receives complaints about Lime bikes through channels such as telephone, Facebook, X, Fix My Street, and emails sent directly to individual councillors or officers, but these complaints are not included in these statistics."

He added that since the council made its demands, he had received an "unprecedented" amount of messages supporting them - and one "commonsense" request was for better data sharing with the council on problem hotspots.

The bike hire company previously told Brent and Kilburn Times: “We can enforce mandatory parking rules in Brent, but first we need the council to build a functional network of parking locations.

“We can provide data and funding to support this process. We want to work with them on this. Banning bikes won't help anyone."