Miniature motorcycles are a menace. They buzz at speed along the pavements and lanes, through snickets on estates and up and down pedestrian avenues in parks. Apart from being a ludicrous sight with people often of adult size perched above their tiny wheels, they are highly dangerous to those who ride them (usually without a crash helmet) and to anyone who might get in their way.

The setting-up last month of the Motorcycle Nuisance Group, bringing together police, ASBO officers, environmental health teams and park rangers in a co-ordinated campaign against Bradford's two-wheeled nuisances, was a good move. Added to the powers under the Police Reform Act to seize the vehicles if they are causing annoyance or distress to the public, it quite rightly sent out a firm message that this sort of anti-social behaviour was no longer going to be tolerated.

And now, for those mini-bikers who still haven't got the message, comes the plan to site a 40-tonne crushing machine on the Windhill estate and publicly destroy some of those confiscated vehicles. The police view is that by putting the machine under people's noses in an area which has been badly affected by mini-bikes they will make it obvious that they are seriously tackling the issue.

Let's hope the measure is doubly successful, not only by reassuring the law-abiding public that firm steps are being taken to protect them and safeguard their peace and quiet, but also by making it plain to any would-be mini-bikers that if they acquire one of the vehicles and ride it illegally, they could lose it forever.