Bid to help curb Levenmouth biking problem

The number of calls about the issue of antisocial biking has more than doubled in the last year.

Councillors on the Levenmouth Area Committee will tomorrow (Wednesday) be asked to agree to pay around £24,000 to increase the police resource in the area for a period of seven months.

This would be a one-off cost and a 50 per cent match with police resources to meet the full cost.

In particular, the two officers would, between April and October, be dedicated to looking to help tackle the problem of illegal motorbike and quad bike use in the area.

The Fife Council report highlights that people in Levenmouth have held a long-standing concern about the use of the bikes, with some feeling ‘intimidated’ due to the speed and ‘lack of care’ exhibited by some of the riders.

It also shows that the problem has increased in recent years.

Calls to the police about the antisocial use of off-road motorcycles in Levenmouth has more than doubled in the last year.

The volume of calls in 2018 about the issue (1098) was 23 per cent higher than the previous two years combined.

Around 82 per cent of those calls came between May and October 2018, with 50 per cent occurring between July and September.

The two officers would focus on prevention, intervention and enforcement, working with local agencies, such as Safer Communities and the Kingdom Off-Road Motorcycle Club to help tackle the problem.