Police are warning bikers using an area of West Lothian declared a protected scheduled monument to stop.
Two years after police first backed a local partnership to tackle anti-social behaviour by bikers using tracks on local bings the area is still a magnet for off-road motorcyclists.
And at the weekend police targeted bikers, warning them: "Don't risk it" .
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Greendykes bing is popular with locals as a dog walking area and is also more widely known among the walking and outdoor pursuit community in Scotland.
As the largest of West Lothian's oil-shale bings it is protected as a Scheduled Monument, and provides habitats for a wide range of locally threatened flora and fauna, such as wormwoods, hares, red grouse, skylarks and badgers.
West Lothian Council concedes on its website: “Unfortunately it suffers from illegal off-road bike activity. The associated and smaller Albyn Bing, to the south-east, has slopes that plunge dramatically towards the Union Canal.”
It is the steep slopes that draw bikers from as far as Tayside and the north of England. The bings became really popular with bikers during the pandemic lockdowns and social media has spread the popularity of the area.
Online footage of bikers defying steep inclines to climb the bings also shows the damage being done as shale spoil is churned into deeply rutted tracks on the steepest slopes.
At the latest meeting of the Broxburn Uphall and Winchburgh community council Sgt Mike Hart said: “ We have visited the bings on a number of occasions and we engage with those using off-road bikes. We deliver information to them and take details.
“ People have been receptive and have packed up and left.”
He added: “We have to be there to catch them and if there are repeat offenders we’ll take appropriate action against them.”
There are widespread problems with off-road motorcyles in housing areas, as well as sites including bings in the county. One teenager has already been charged following an incident in north Livingston.
On Saturday local police targeted illegal off-ride bike use.
On social media Sgt Lee Brodie said: “We carried out a day of action, throughout Linlithgow, Pumpherston, Livingston, Uphall, Broxburn, Midcalder and East Calder, in response to various complaints from the public about the dangerous and illegal use of off-road bikes.
“Officers carried out targeted foot and vehicle patrols and completed letter drops in affected streets, appealing for information. Officers also visited witnesses to this illegal behaviour; as a result, enquiries are ongoing to identify and trace a number of individuals.
“Our message is clear: if you own an off-road bike, do not use it in public streets or on land without the landowner's consent, and don’t risk the safety of yourself and others or the legal consequences.”
Tired of the noise and disturbance caused by the bikers, local councillors met with community groups and landowners in the spring of 2020.
Addressing a West Lothian Council committee at the launch local councillor, and West Lothian’s SNP group leader councillor Janet Campbell said: “The issue of anti-social behaviour on the Bings, specifically the use of off road motorcycles causing gross noise disturbance has been an issue since I was elected.
"It has really gone through the roof during the lockdown in terms of the multitudes of people using the bings for off-road motorcycle activity – it was happening on a daily basis and sometimes literally from dawn to dusk.”
The partnership includes representatives of Historic Scotland- Greendykes is a scheduled monument- Police Scotland, Hopetoun Estates and other local landowners as well as West Lothian Council. Some of the land, especially around the bings is in council ownership while other parts are privately owned.
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