ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

Boris Johnson today called for the use of so-called “hoverboards” to be made legal on the capital’s pavements.

The London Mayor said the increasingly popular devices are “liberating” and that allowing them is only fair given “oldsters” can already ride mobility scooters on footpaths.

It comes after police tweeted that “self-balancing scooters” are banned in public because under current law they are classed as vehicles, but do not meet licence and registration requirements.

Writing in his Telegraph column Johnson said: “Let’s get Back to the Future, and stop this ludicrous and nannying prohibition on the electric scooter-surfboard gizmos.

“They are the Segway-like things which the authorities have said young people may not use on the pavement.

“Well, I have consulted Transport for London (Surface Transport) experts, and they think this hogwash.”

He added: “They are a new and potentially liberating form of personal mobility. We want to legalise them.

“If the oldsters can charge towards you on their terrifying chariots, the youngsters should be able to waft on their boards. It’s intergenerational fairness.”