Hartlepool MP Jonathan Brash explains how the town is fighting back against off-road bike menace
Anyone who lives in Hartlepool knows how frightening and infuriating off-road bikes can be.
The noise. The danger. The feeling that your local park or street has been taken over by a small number of riders who simply don’t care about others.
For years, residents have quite rightly said: enough is enough. To understand why recent progress matters, we need to be clear about where we started.
Between February and April last year, Hartlepool was seeing well over 100 reports of off-road bike activity every single month.
That is an astonishing figure and it explains why so many people felt unsafe letting children play outside or walking through green spaces.
Thanks to determined, targeted action across all 12 ward areas, however, reports have been driven down to just 31 in November.
That is not a coincidence. It is the result of excellent work by Hartlepool Police, working hand-in-hand with the council and partner agencies, and backed up by residents coming forward with information.
Police have focused on hot-spot areas, disrupted repeat offenders and tackled the problem head-on.
Behind the scenes, the way off-road bike activity is tracked has been tightened up too, with regular analytical reports reviewed at senior police level.
That means patterns are spotted early and action is taken quickly.
In December and January there were 60 reports across the two months – an average of 30 a month.
Even more telling is that only four of those incidents involved actual crimes linked to e-bikes or e-scooters, far fewer than in neighbouring areas.
In plain English: Hartlepool is getting a grip on this problem.
The Labour government is also rolling out tough new powers to crack down on anti-social behaviour involving off-road bikes.
Police will be able to seize bikes on the spot, move towards a “one strike” approach and crush seized bikes within 48 hours instead of weeks.
That is a clear message to offenders: if you ride dangerously, you lose your bike and fast.
Is the job finished? No. One illegal bike tearing through a park is still one too many.
But when you compare today’s figures with the starting point of more than 100 reports a month, this is real progress.
It shows what can be achieved with strong local policing, clear political backing and a willingness to act.