I wanted to update you all on the efforts of the ORBT over the last 10 months since my last correspondence. Apologies I have not made it to any council meetings in person, but if you could cascade this message to your communities I would appreciate it.

 

We are seeing a steady stream of reports coming in of bikes and quads causing problems throughout the county and anticipate the problem shifting from two wheels to four as the ground becomes water logged and lends itself to 4 wheel stability over two.

 

The ORBT have increased the teams Quad fleet to combat this seasonal trend.

 

We appreciate the urban areas will still see two wheeled activity. There  has been an increase in the use of electric motorbikes, (as pictured) these are usually a model called Sur-ron. A licence is needed and helmets, insurance and MOT’s if ridden on public place or a highway. Please do report if you witness these being used in public places or on the roads. They are not cheap, £4500 and if tinkered with can reach speeds over 50mph. note they do not have pedals.

 

We have had lot of people contact us expressing the difficulty in trying to report incidents.

 

101 reportedly taking too long and 999 not always being appropriate at the time.

 

I urge you to try and use the online reporting tool, specifically for the problem caused by bikes and quads.

 

Once registered a report can be put on within a few minutes. We will not respond immediately but at least we can show a true picture off what’s happening, when, where and how frequently so we can allocate our time proactively patrolling those areas most affected.

 

Please share this link on the online reporting tool.

 

https://smartcontact.southyorkshire.police.uk/report/nuisance-motorbikesvehicles/

 

You may have noticed our very popular Off Road Bike Team Facebook page is currently down, (this is a force wide problem). In the meantime please use this email address to contact us. (In addition to the reporting method above.)

 

You can use the main South Yorkshire Police Facebook page, and the “message/chat” facility on there to report incidents should the online reporting tool  not work for some reason.

 

So far this year the ORB team have taken 105 bikes and 15 quads off the fields/road…many of these were originally stolen.

 

Thank you for your help with this problem that affects so many of our communities.

 

 Kind regards

 

Sgt James Shirley

 

ORBT Sergeant