Hundreds of motorbike disorder cases reported in Ashington, Blyth and Bedlington

A Freedom of Information request found that there have been 1,366 cases of anti-social behaviour involving the illegal use of off-road and electric motorbikes in Northumberland’s ten largest towns this year.

This is the highest number since 2020 and marks a significant increase on 2022’s figure of 980.

Ashington is the worst-affected town, with 402 cases reported this year alone and 1,151 since 2020.

The issue was raised at a Northumberland County Council meeting earlier this year, with Ashington Central councillor Caroline Ball claiming some residents were “petrified” to leave their homes.

Blyth was the next most affected town with 795 incidents since 2020, followed by Bedlington with 564.

At the other end of the scale, Ponteland had no reports of any motorbike disorder incidents at all.

Northumbria Police have launched Operation Capio, which sees officers working with partners to respond to reports of dangerous riding.

Chief Inspector Colin Lowther urged the public to report incidents as soon as possible.

He said: “As a force we take all reports of anti-social behaviour seriously, especially those involving electric motorbikes and off-road bikes. This is because we know the actions of a minority can have a significant impact on the wider community.

“We are committed to tackling this type of disorder, and have recently launched Operation Capio, dedicated activity which sees us working with partners and using a range of tools to ensure a robust response to reports of reckless and dangerous riding.

“As part of this activity, we regularly deploy officers to hotspot areas, issue dispersal notices, seize vehicles and make arrests where appropriate. We have also recently started to use drones to support our work in this area and will continue to use technology to enhance and develop our response.

“As always, we’d like to thank the public for their continued support. By sharing concerns and reporting incidents to us allows our intelligence picture to grow so we can better shape our patrols and planning. I hope our communities know that we act on the information they share with us and we’d ask they continue to be our eyes and ears.

“If you see something suspicious, please report it to police at the earliest opportunity and share as much detail as possible to help us bring any offenders to justice.”

In September, Northumbria’s new chief constable Vanessa Jardine branded the illegal use of motorbikes as “awful” and “dangerous” but confessed that they were “really hard to tackle”. Officers do not pursue the vehicles for fear of causing injury to the rider.

At a meeting of Cramlington, Bedlington and Seaton Valley Local Area Committee, Neighbourhood Inspector for Cramlington Jonathan Caisley said he didn’t believe there was public “appetite” for cops to chase the bikes.

Coun Gordon Stewart, chairman of the Safer Northumberland Community Safety Project, said: “We understand the distress and annoyance caused by such anti-social behaviour and the obvious dangers to the riders and other people. I encourage members of the public to report such issues to the police.

“We continue to work closely with them and other partners such as housing providers and landowners.”