POLICE have clamped down on off-road bikers who have started using a private Grimethorpe wood after the owner gave permission to members of a trials bike club.
Officers spent last weekend patrolling fields and land at the top of Cemetery Road, Grimethorpe in an operation to deter people that shouldn't be there from using it.
They seized eight bikes, issued a caution for child neglect after a youngster was found riding without a helmet and handed out 38 section 171 notices warning people that if they are caught again their bikes will be confiscated.
One bike suspected of being stolen was also seized, three people were reported on summons for motoring offences and two tickets for motoring offences were handed out.
The police operation was carried out following complaints from residents who claimed they had been disturbed by noise from people riding their bikes on streets outside their homes to get to the wood.
Police say there is no problem with a local trials club using the wooded area, which is some distance from the houses, but it is the other element they want to target and, even though the wood is private land, people riding on it may still be committing an offence.
PC Brad Wynne from Cudworth SNT said: "The decent people put their bikes on trailers or in vans and drive down to the wooded area where they are allowed to ride away from houses. The noise will be so minimal we won't be able to accept a complaint from anyone.
"We have no objection to the club practising and riding down there because we know they are responsible. It is not about that, it is the idiots riding everywhere that we are targeting."
