Feature: Taking the fight to off-road bikers

FROM an upstairs window, a resident films the chaotic scenes below.
A group of six or so bikers cut across the grass and head for a narrow footbridge in an attempt to escape the policeman on their tail.
But when a second officer appears on the other side of the river, the riders are left with no choice but to retreat back the way they came.
The video, shot in Chelmsley Wood last month, is one of several doing the rounds on social media which show the extent of problems being caused by motorbikes, quad bikes and mini-motos screeching through North Solihull.
It’s important to point out that this isn’t an entirely new phenomena. A quick search of YouTube turns up footage of a couple of quad bikes running through the streets of Marston Green some seven years ago.
That said, complaints about boy racers tearing around parks, along pavements and down public roads have definitely increased in the last year or two and no longer do problems seem to be confined to the long summer evenings.
There are regular reports of rallies being held along the Collector Road and gangs use sites such as Facebook to organise mass “ride-outs”, including a particularly notorious incident at Halloween last year; at one stage a group of up to 100 riders launched a frenzied attack on a police van.
Although these incidents are those most likely to make the headlines they’re interspersed with scores of reports of residents kept awake by racing engines, afraid to use certain parks and recounting near-misses which could have ended in tragedy.

Commenting on our Facebook page, Robyn Owens recalled the day she had nearly been involved in a head-on collision after a bike jumped a red light.
“The day I came so close to killing one of them changed me as a driver,” she said.
Previously the police had been criticised for not doing enough to tackle the problem.
When Insp Allan Green, the neighbourhood inspector for Meriden, appeared at a recent meeting in Castle Bromwich, many residents were frustrated by an apparent lack of action.
The officer, who said many of the riders were “nasty, hardened criminals”, insisted that police were taking steps to seize bikes and warned that those who flouted the law could expect a knock at the door early one morning.
“We will find out who these people are and we will do all in our power to stop them,” he assured locals.
Councillor Chris Williams (Green, Chelmsley Wood) was among those to have previously raised concerns about the police response, but he did believe that recent operations were making a difference.
He said the dawn raids – in which bikes are impounded and often sent to be crushed – had acted as a deterrent, although he was less convinced that an injunction which Solihull Council had secured to ban road racing had made much difference.
“The attitude of the police has improved a lot,” he said. “A year ago, they were dismissive so we
worked hard to get that attitude changed. Now, the police understand why we were pushing them so hard and they have taken action.
“But there’s still a long way to go. There are still a lot more off road bikes being used inappropriately that they need to deal with, so the police need to redouble their efforts to get there."