Where the fuck did hoverboards come from? Once just a distant dream spawned by Back To The Future, the flashing, futuristic “self-balancing scooter” has embedded itself firmly within modern life, carrying rappers around airports and people with too much money to their place of work.

If you are a UK resident you are one of those who has lashed out £250, unlucky – the only place you can actually cruise around is your back garden. 

According to total killjoys, the Crown Prosecution service, hoverboards are illegal. They’re too unsafe to ride on the road because they don’t meet the requirements to be a road-legal vehicle but also too dangerous to ride on the pavement. So, the only land they’re legal to ride on is private property, as long as you have  the landowner’s permission. 

These aren’t changed regulations. This is not new law. But a resurgence in the mini-segway prompted the police to tweet on Sunday a warning about their legality to those who want to buy them.

I’m assuming the people that ride past me on my commute don’t know about this one. Or at least, they do now. Wonder what the police will make of real hoverboards (these ones balance, they don’t actually hover) which hit the market very soon, prepped to carry everyone around a few inches above the pavement. Watch this space – we’re desperate to see policemen chasing rogue segway users around the streets.