Mini menace complaint

With reference to your recent article about the dangers posed to other canal users by young tearaways on motorcycles.

My advice to the group complaining about this menace is "don't bother".

Having nearly been hit by a motorcycle while walking along the Wyrley and Essington canal I phoned the police to complain.

A very pleasant young lady told me that while they would log my complaint no action would be taken. Stating the obvious, she told me that motorcycles could go very fast.

We need a team of highly trained high-speed pursuit officers to catch them but we don't have them, she said, and that was that.

It seems that to catch a group of ten-year-olds riding chopped down motorcycles on a three-foot-wide towpath is beyond the capability of normal police officers.

The once pleasant Chasewater country park has become a mecca for these young people. On a recent visit I saw upwards of ten machines at a time in action.

While some bikes were brought in on trailers, most of them arrived via the A5 or the road that crosses the dam, their young riders weaving through the traffic confident in the knowledge that there would be no police present to spoil their fun.

I was at the park for over three hours and during this time not one police officer attended, yet Brownhills police station is no more than a mile away.

As someone who has ridden motorcycles for nearly 50 years I understand the attraction of this sport but, as a recent tragedy proves, letting unsupervised children loose on these machines is a recipe for disaster.

Finally, as for the statement by Sgt Martin Brown of Rushhall-Shelfield neighbourhood police team that he has no more resources to throw at this problem, in all the years I have walked, fished, boated and ridden push bikes along this stretch of canal I have never seen any sign of a police presence.

We live in a two-tier society as far as policing is concerned. Had I been hit by that young rider the police would have taken no action.

Yet had I caught up with him and given him the clip around the ear that he so richly deserved I have no doubt in my mind that the police would find all the resources they needed to bring a prosecution against me.

R Vigors, Brownhills.