CHILDREN as young as six have been spotted riding off-road motorbikes on Darlington’s roads, the town’s MP said after spending a day speaking to residents about the issue.

One resident told Jenny Chapman she had seen the six-year-old riding along the road with a toddler aged about 18 months on the handlebars.

It came as the Labour MP joined Durham’s Police and Crime Commissioner Ron Hogg in speaking to residents in the Eastbourne area of town about the use of drones to combat illegal and dangerous off-road bikes.

She said: “It is a problem we have had for quite a long time.

“Illegal riding of off-road bikes is a menace, it is a nuisance, and it is dangerous.

“One resident we spoke to had seen a six-year-old with a toddler who must have been 18 months to two years on the front of the bike, on the road.

“These bikes are not licensed and shouldn’t be on the road at all. Many of them are totally unsafe, bought second-hand off the internet. They are not expensive enough to make people take care of them responsibly.

“Now the police have managed to buy good quality drones which they can use for enforcement and to identify the riders and the bikes, with officers trained to use them. Police were telling me on Friday that they have already seized a number of bikes using this method. They may not have been able to do so otherwise.

“The drones are starting to act as a deterrent but it needs to be a consistent, long-term approach from the police.”

Durham Constabulary was unable to give its most recent figures but said in February that five off-road bikes and mopeds had been seized by police as part of a crackdown on nuisance riding in Darlington.

The problem is most common on the edge-of-town estates including Firthmoor, Red Hall and Branksome, and often the vehicles are ridden anti-socially across nature reserves as well as on the roads.

One of the bikes seized earlier this year by officers at Maidendale Nature Reserve, for having no insurance, was being ridden by a 12-year-old boy.

Operation Endurance is Durham Constabulary’s crackdown on those who ride bikes illegally, and is ongoing.

Inspector Chris Knox, from Darlington Neighbourhood Police Team, said in February: “We understand and share the community’s frustrations with these riders, who terrorise communities with their brazen disregard for the law.” Anyone with any information can email opendurance@durham.pnn.police.uk