Thousands of pounds have been spent by police in a bid to drive nuisance motorcyclists off the road.

Teenage riders have been making residents' lives hell by driving their machines illegally and dangerously off roads on Bradford estates.

Cyclists as young as two and as old as 80 have even been caught creating a nuisance and police have received at least 30 complaints a day from the public about anti-social riding across the district.

Now police in Bradford South are clamping down on the problem by assigning two officers to full-time patrols on a pair of speedy and easy to manoeuvre motorcycles which have cost £24,000.

And in his first day on the road, PC Andy Howarth seized a moped from a 15-year-old youth who had defied a warning a week earlier not to ride the machine in an anti-social manner.

PC Howarth said: "He was riding up and down the Tyersal Lane area, causing a nuisance. The moped had no exhaust and was noisy. It was uninsured and was in an unroadworthy and dangerous condition.

"I found him down a dirt track hiding in some bushes. The bike will be crushed and the youth will be dealt with for criminal matters."

Inspector Graham Sowden, of the Bradford South Neighbourhood Policing Team, admitted police had been providing a "poor service" in tackling anti-social behaviour by off-road motorcyclists because they had not had the equipment to deal with it.

He said: "Now we have these bikes there are things we can do."

PC Howarth, who will be on the road with PC Shaun Cannon, said the challenge was to educate parents who bought mopeds, quad bikes, mini motorcycles and gopeds for their children without realising the consequences.

Police have also spent £3,000 per bike on video equipment which will gather evidence, as well as £1,000 on the officers' riding equipment and a similar amount on a two-week riding course.

They are working with Bradford Council park rangers, environmental health officers and tenancy enforcement agencies and particularly targeting hotspot estates in Holme Wood, Wyke and the Spen Valley Greenway. Police.

They are also working with Bradford Council, environmental health and the Autocycle Union, which represents motorcycle sport across Britain, to find a site where off road bikers can legitimately ride.

e-mail: steve.wright@bradford.newsquest.co.uk