Sheffield Councillor calls for crackdown on off-road bikers after shocking attack
A Sheffield councillor, who was attacked in his car by a masked biker, says police need to be doing more to stop them causing anti-social behaviour.
Ben Miskell suffered the attack on East Bank Road in Arbourthorne on Monday after he took a photograph of the biker pulling wheelies to gather evidence.
The man circled Ben's car before repeatedly kicking it, leaving the boot badly damaged - the man caused hundreds of pounds worth of damage to the car.
Ben thinks more support should be given to residents when reporting these crimes:
"If this happens to me as a local councillor when I challenge that, what is it like for my constituents. What are they meant to do. People tell me they struggle to relax in the evening because of the constant noise, people are really worry about elderly family member and letting their children go outside.
"Most are scared to death of reporting or confronting these criminals and when they do report the issue to the police on 101, It takes them a long time to get through to officers."
The Labour councillor was returning from a Neighbourhood Watch meeting where people had complained about the nuisance off-road bikers making the community an unsafe environment.
Ben says the community shouldn't feel defenceless in their own homes:
"Many residents feel scared about challenging it themselves, there's quite a lot of intimidation in the community which means that a lot of people are scared of speaking to the media about it.
"We receive hundreds of emails, letters and telephone calls from people in the ward and that is not to similar from whats happening accross the City with these dangerous motorbikes.
"It's frustrating to have to wait in a call centre queue to report it to 101 but we really do need people to report it to the police so they have that really important intelligence, so they know where the bikes are stored and where the individuals live."
Police say they've set up a new off road bike team to tackle the issue.
Inspector Joe Hunt said:
“Tackling illegal off-road bikers causing antisocial behaviour is a priority for us across Sheffield, and isn’t an Arbourthorne specific issue.
“Over recent months we have taken a number of positive steps as we work towards identifying off-road bikers and taking action against them where necessary.
“We have set up a specific off-road bike team who were formed specifically to look at ways in which we can identify suspects and take positive action to deal with them, to ensure members of the community feel safe where they live**.
“In addition to this, a number of officers from across the force have received off-road bike training, which means they can ride off-road bikes which is incredibly important for us during the targeted operations we regularly run.
“As part of Operation Duxford last week in Sheffield, a number of officers were also assigned to looking at off-road bike issues in various areas across the district.
“I am confident that we are making good progress in tackling this issue and I’d encourage anyone who has concerns, or information that could help us to identify offenders, to phone us on 101."