FOLLOWING a verbal update on Essex Police’s activities regarding Off Road Nuisance Vehicles, Cllr Sara Muldowney, Labour’s Spokesperson for Cleaner, Greener, Safer Communities has questioned how the quad bike team would be deployed to address local motorbike nuisance.
Speaking after the Cleaner, Greener, Safer committee meeting she said:
“Essex Police are clearly stepping up to the plate to tackle this issue and are bringing forward innovative ideas to address this decades long and persistent nuisance.”
“As councillors for Chadwell St Mary, which contains one of the top 5 hotspots for this kind of nuisance, Cllr Chukwu and I welcome this new initiative and the fresh ideas Acting Chief Inspector Fisher is bringing to policing this issue.”
“The Police explained how quad bikes would allow their officers access to remote areas where this nuisance takes place. I can see how this would allow police to engage with and detain out of borough offenders, who would need to load their vehicles onto loaders or vans before escaping. What is less clear, though, is how having a quad bike team will help police address the local nuisance bike problem in places like Orsett Heath, when local riders can quickly flee the scene through multiple exit points.”
“I accept that the police do not want to put the public in danger by pursuing these riders, but it does leave the question how will it work in practice?”
Fellow Chadwell Councillor, Daniel Chukwu, raised concerns about the target hardening barriers recently installed on Orsett Heath by the bridge over the A1089 leading to Blackshots:
“Last November, Cllr Muldowney and myself met with police and council officers to discuss target hardening on the Heath. It was agreed that staggered barriers before the bridge to Woodside Academy would help to slow motorbikes down entering the Heath and make it less attractive to those who like to do laps around Blackshots onto the Heath and then through Chadwell roads.”
“Residents have waited 7 months for this target hardening to be put in place, but when Cllr Muldowney and I went to see the results, we found that the barriers were completely ineffective due to the big gap to the left of the new barriers, meaning that bikes can easily ride around them. I welcome promises from officers to look again at how to make these barriers an effective deterrent. At the moment, it is just another huge waste of taxpayers’ money.”
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