Police in West Midlands aim to tackle illegal off-road biking
Police in Telford are stepping up action against people riding off-road bikes in all the wrong places.
Police in the West Midlands town of Telford are intensifying efforts to combat illegal off-road biking, citing it as a "danger for members of the public."
West Mercia Police say they’ve seen a rise in complaints from residents reporting off-road bikes on footpaths and parks. It’s perhaps an unsurprising knock-on effect of the warm and dry summer we’ve been having, with more routes proving too tempting.
Or perhaps it’s just pillocks being pillocks.
Riding off-road motorbikes and quad bikes on public land, such as bridleways and footpaths, is generally against the law. To address the issue, the police force’s motorcycle team has taken to offroad bikes of its own - provided by West Midlands Police.
Additionally, air support from the National Police Air Service assists by spotting and tracking riders from above.
Sgt David Williams told BBC Radio Shropshire that police get “numerous” calls from the public on the subject of off-road biking, which helps them to get a good sense of where the activity is happening and likely to happen.
“We're taking this issue to them directly as opposed to waiting for a call and nobody being available," he said.
Because every action has to have a cool nickname, West Mercia Police are calling this Operation Spree. Sgt. Richard Jones is one of the project leaders and explained that police aren’t simply being killjoys but that off-road riders are choosing the wrong places to ride.
“Telford is mainly built up of close communities,” he told. BBC Radio Shropshire. “So they're riding on pavements around housing estates and causing distress and danger for members of the public," he said.
In other words, this isn’t actually a case of off-road enthusiasts lacking adequate space to play, it’s that other thing we said.
Jones added that riders were rarely wearing appropriate gear - including helmets - and more often than not lacked the necessary skill and training to handle their vehicles safely.
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Chris Cope is a fourth-generation journalist, originally from Texas. He has lived in the UK for roughly two decades and has been writing about motorcycles for most of that time. He has written for dozens of publications and websites in the UK, US, Canada, and Australia.
