Deputy Leader of the Council

Donna Melody who lives and works in Manchester asked

I have bought my son a 50cc motorbike for Christmas and wanted to know where he will be able to legally ride it in the Manchester area. i.e. fields or designated areas.

Councillor Jim Battle - Deputy Leader replied

Thank you for your question. There are no sites in the City for use by off road motorcycles and quad bikes. There is an organisation working jointly with councils in Greater Manchester and the Greater Manchester Police to look at the possibility of providing a venue for people to ride legally in the context of a Greater Manchester approach with other councils and the police. However, there are no firm arrangements in place and no sites identified as yet.

Our advice to parents is not to buy these bikes, they are dangerous and if driven on any road or public space they are illegal and have caused horrendous accidents to riders and members of the public. Our advice is simple and very clear, do not buy them.

19 December 2005

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Anonymous, who lives in Manchester, asked 

We (family of 5) are thinking of moving from Dam Head to Plant Hill (Crab Lane) and was wondering if you could tell us about the area generally.

I have read all the information on your website about the schools, learning etc but when we went to have a look it look around the area it looked almost run down in parts.

Please can you give us any information on the crime levels, can we expect to see gangs of youths hanging around, what plans are in place for the area (next 5-10yrs).

Having read a lot of the questions already submitted, I would expect you to reply advising me of all the good things in place in Plant Hill. Please will you be totally honest and let us know if the area has had a higher crime rate than its neighbouring boroughs and if so any plans for the area.

Councillor Jim Battle - Deputy Leader replied

Manchester is addressing the issue of anti social behaviour and crime. There is an active crime reduction initiative that takes place in all of Manchester and involves local residents and services. I will ensure you receive a copy of the forthcoming Local Action Partnership newsletter for your area which provides further details on local activity which is due for publication in December.

22 November 2005

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T. Finn who lives and works in Manchester asked

I live and work locally and was brought up around here and am only to aware of the problems we have and have had for many years. One of which is off road motorbikes and quad bikes being drove on parks and Streets. I understand peoples annoyance at this but the problem will not go away unless we give them somewhere to go! My son owns a quad bike and is very fortunate that we have a car and trailer and can take him down to a relatives who owns some open land there must be some land for example an old rubbish site that can't be built on. Not everyone will agree but we have to represent everyone's opinion not just the ones that are confident enough to be involved in the areas regen plans. It would also free up a lot of police time locally and would bring people from further a field into the area, we have travelled great distances and have not come across a site like this. So local businesses would also benefit. I will be very interested to hear your reply.

Councillor Jim Battle - Deputy Leader replied

At the present time there are no sites in the City that have been sourced for the use by off road motorcycling and quad biking. This has been an issue that the Council and partner agencies have been researching for some time. We have developed a toolkit for testing the realities of potential sites but so far, none have been found to be suitable. As well as considering suitability for use including Health & Safety implications, one of our measures when assessing potential sites is consulting with local people to date many have expressed concerns regarding increased noise levels, losing open spaces etc. However, I understand that Trafford MBC is following up a site proposed at Peeks Nook near Partington.

What we do need to consider is that even in the event of the Council providing a site for legitimate users, there would still be many illegal bikes i.e. stolen or uninsured, and these bikers will clearly not use a facility if evidence of ownership and insurance is required.

Illegal usage of using these off-road vehicles is an overwhelming issue for many of the citizens of Manchester. Indeed, this issue is brought to the attention of many of the Councillors and Officers of the Council, so much so that together with our partners at Greater Manchester Police, various initiatives and joint operations have been carried out including bike seizures and crushing as well as looking to secure our open public, green spaces and parkway to prevent access for such activity.

A joint report from the Red Rose Forest Partners has been launched at the Greater Manchester Police Authority (GMPA) "Stop Off - Road Nuisance Conference" on the 11th November 2005 which seeks to highlight the inherent problems and issues surrounding off road motorcycling. In addition to this a strong publicity campaign is underway which spells out the dangers, the enforcement powers available to the police and advice to parents.

17 November 2005

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Egil Orndal who lives and works in Manchester asked

Why is it that most of the contact telephone numbers on your web-site does not work? Is this a clever way of making sure that you don't get more requests or complaints than you can handle? I have tried to call you council tax people - no reply to emails and phone number doesn't work. I have tried to call your nationality checking people - phone number doesn't work. I tried to get a bin - no response to form submitted on-line, but surprise, surprise phone number did work. Great web-site, but a pity that that is where it stops.

Councillor Jim Battle - Deputy Leader replied

Dear Mr Orndal

Thank you for your question submitted through our website. We have looked into the issues you raised, and can respond as follows:

Council Tax information We have checked information on the website - the telephone numbers are correct and working, although due to high demand on the Council Tax number they may not always be answered straight away.

The e-mail links from the site are also functioning, and the Council Tax Service received your email on 4 October 2005. Normally we aim to respond to emails within 7 days, but because we are preparing to install new technology to support our Council Tax service we are currently not achieving this target. Your email was dealt with on 22 October 2005, and our records show that we wrote to you then with an amended bill. I would like to apologise for this delay - we deal with many hundreds of council tax enquiries each day, and the delay in responding to emails should only be a temporary problem.

Nationality Checking Advice on nationality checking is provided by the independent Citizen's Advice Bureau in Manchester. We have checked their number which is listed on our site, and while it is correct, the information we were given about when the Citizen's Advice Bureau lines are open was wrong. We would like to thank you for bringing it to our attention - we have now amended the information, and reviewed the rest of the content on these pages to ensure that it is correct, and clear.

Bin request

We have responded to you directly about this.

Good customer service is extremely important to us. We go to great lengths to ensure that contact information on our website is up to date, and your comments have helped us in that process. We are currently developing both our call centre systems and website to increase the number of ways that customers can contact us, and make sure that they receive good service when they do.

This includes expanding the system which allowed us to track exactly what happened and when with your bin request to other services. I am sorry that you have had problems contacting us recently. Sometimes supporting these developments can temporarily affect other aspects of the service, but we try to keep this to a minimum. I hope that you will continue to make use of the variety of channels which are convenient to you, and we will do our best to deliver good service in return.

8 November 2005

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Nicholas Adrian Williams who lives and works in Manchester asked

Please can you let me know what you are doing about the large amount of illegal motorbikes and minibikes, driven in my street and Crumpsall Park, Queens park and Harpurhey ponds. I have almost seen children run over and my wife when walking the dog at 4.30 pm in Crumpsall park was almost run over and then verbally abused by the parents when she complained about the use of the bike. This a regular occurrence in the day and night and a plague to the community and a death of a child is inevitable. Please can you inform me of what actions over this. Also when driving home on the A6 at Longsight I was almost involved in a accident with a minibike when in came out of a side road in front of my car. Can you not act on the suppliers by using an licence of sale or similar or take legal action against the suppliers for the cost of policing

Councillor Jim Battle - Deputy Leader replied

The Crime and Disorder Partnership is aware of the issue regarding the use of off road and similar motorbikes in your area and across Manchester. In response to this, Manchester City Council and Greater Manchester Police have been working together with Trading Standards, our own Housing department and Housing Associations to tackle the problem of off road nuisance from retailing to enforcement. An awareness campaign will be launched shortly advising users and parents of the dangers of riding these bikes inappropriately and the consequences of their misuse. A campaign is also planned for the run up to Christmas to advise people against buying these bikes as presents.

The Police and Manchester City Council have worked to be able to take action against misuse these bikes in line with the Police Reform Act 2002. It is important however, for local residents to pass on as much information as possible about riders and bikes. We have also produced leaflets which will shortly be distributed to residents and we will be happy to send you copies through the post. These provide a means of reporting incidents to the local policing team, ward co-ordinator or housing provider in confidence.

Over the past two months, a dedicated police operation clamping down on offenders and their off-road vehicles has been taking place in Moston and Harpurhey. So far, they've seized six bikes, issued 20 Section 59s (warning notices issued to offenders) and have a database of almost fifty addresses in the area that they'll be monitoring for illegal activity. They've also been working with the Housing Department at Manchester City Council to ensure that council tenants aren't breaking their tenancy agreement by keeping off-road vehicles in their property. If they're found to be then they're issued with a warning for eviction. Manchester City Council is currently working to make sure that residents are made fully aware that storing these bikes in council properties could be a breach of tenancy and they could lose their home.

In Beswick and Openshawe, a database has been set up to combat the nuisance of off-road motor vehicles. It contains over 60 names, addresses and vehicle details of off-road motorbikes/cars that have been issued with an official warning by police due to their anti-social behaviour. Thirty vehicles have been seized in this area so far and numerous summons issued for prosecution including dangerous driving. A reduction of this menace by 50% has been achieved as a result.

Greater Manchester Police and Manchester City Council are also making a case to government for the registration of such bikes. This would outlaw the purchase by people who are without a proper place to use them.

Although it is not illegal to sell these bikes, Trading Standards are able to confiscate bikes that are unsafe and also restrict sales by the retailer. Throughout October inspection visits were made across Manchester and confiscations will be made as appropriate. Trading Standards are also working closely with the Fire Service to prevent the sale of petrol to people under 16 who may be purchasing for use in a motorbike.

In order to take this further, your concerns will be forwarded on to the Crumpsall and Harpurhey Local Action Partnerships. These are local crime reduction forums attended by Councillors, the police, park wardens, residents groups and city council community safety officer. They meet regularly to take action to reduce crime and nuisance, such as off road bikes, in your area.

3 November 2005