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Crackdown on illegal off-road bikingand 4x4's. (Salisbury Journal)
10:21am Tuesday 11th December 2012 in News By Jill Harding
POLICE are clamping down on vehicles being driven illegally on Salisbury Plain.
In a joint operation between Wiltshire Police and the Minister of Defence, eight people have been fined and three motorcycles seized for being driven without insurance or a licence.
And five antisocial behaviour notices were issued, which will stay in force for the next 12 months.
Officers on off-road motorcycles teamed up with training area marshals and land wardens to carry out the latest crackdown.
They were targeting motorcycles and vehicles being driven off the permitted byways across the Plain.
Sergeant Mark Venning, MoD Police senior officer for Salisbury Plain, said: “The vast majority of Salisbury Plain is owned by the MoD and it is regularly used for military exercises.
“The public is allowed access and vehicles are permitted, but only if they stick to the numerous marked byways and official tracks, and they must be fully road legal including insurance.
“No vehicles are allowed to leave these rights of way, primarily for range safety reasons. But unfortunately we have been receiving more and more reports of motorists and bikers going off-road.
“This is an operational military training environment so this clearly presents a safety issue, but there is also the fact that 20,000 hectares of grassland on the Plain have been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conversation.
“We have had reports that damage has been caused to this environment by these unauthorised vehicles and motorbikes driving across the grasslands and in the woods.
“Given the size of the area to be covered, working together with Wiltshire Police and our land wardens gives us a greater ability to deter and detect such offences across the plain, and Wiltshire’s Off Road bike capability had a dramatic and positive impact within this operation. We will continue to work in partnership to safeguard this important training and conservation area.
“MoD land on Salisbury Plain is subject to a range of byelaws which are posted on all access points so there should be no excuses for ignorance.
“These byelaws also give us powers of arrest for offences and allow us to remove vehicles and other property if they are being misused.”
Anyone with information about illegal activity on Salisbury Plain can call Plainwatch on 01980 674700 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111