Police crackdown on off-road tearaways
Police are clamping down on off-roaders who are tearing up paths in a number of beauty spots.
Dyfed Powys police have stepped up patrols and are working with countryside officials to install new gates to stop trail bikers and 4x4s in the Mathrafal woods, near Welshpool.
The force is also dealing with similar problems in the Dyfi forest, where people challenging the culprits have been threatened with violence, according to Natural Resources Wales.
There have also been problems with off-roaders in the Ceiriog forest near Chirk.
Robert Williams, Dyfi forest area manager, said staff had been working with Dyfed Powys and North Wales Police, landowners and locals to log incidents of off-roading. North Wales Police has already issued 10 anti-social driving notices in 2014, meaning a vehicle can be seized and even crushed if offending continues.
Sergeant Rob Taylor, of North Wales Police rural crime team, said: "The damage that can be caused by off-roading is devastating and it can sometimes take quite a number of years for the areas to recover."
Witnesses to illegal off-roading are asked to call police on 101.
People living on the Shropshire/Welsh border say the antics are churning up countryside, and NRW has now joined forces with North Wales Police, the Clwydian Range Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Wrexham County Borough Council and other landowners.
One example of working together has been on the Nantyr estate, where, to restrict access in the Nantyr forest there has been the replacement of a boundary gate with a fence and horse stile and the installation of fencing on a nearby bridleway.
