Locals accused of sabotaging Shropshire paths with broken glass over mountain bikers

People fed up with bikers churning up the countryside have been hiding the glass on trails and pathways, it is claimed.

Police have now been brought in after the discovery of glass on Nesscliffe Hill, near Shrewsbury.

The issue was raised at a meeting of the Great Outdoors Strategy Board.

Claire Fildes, Shropshire Council’s outdoor partnerships enterprise manager, said she was looking to host a meeting of the Nesscliffe Advisory Group in order to broker peace between residents and the mountain bikers.

She said: “There are issues of people who are designing cycle tracks but they aren’t concerned about other people’s safety."

She said the bikers were accused of showing disrespect to the monument on the hill, as well as leaving litter.

Ms Fildes continued: “We are putting a new management plan in place and are going to look at waymarks and the bridleways and how they are used.”

The meeting was told enforcement was an issue, but that the local policing team had created a messaging group to allow residents to report any issues.

Plans were also being put in place to create a user guide to assist visitors.

Ms Fildes added: “Residents have been asked if they see something to go to the police and not tackle it themselves.

“We don’t want to stop people mountain biking in Nesscliffe – it’s great that people want to get out and exercise – but we need to get people using the site correctly and to stop any issues.”

The Nesscliffe Hills and the Cliffe Countryside Heritage Site – said to date back 3,000 years – includes an iron-age hill fort, a series of quarries that supplied stone for some of Shropshire’s’ castles and churches, and a cave that was reportedly the hideout of medieval outlaw Humphrey Kynaston.

By Emily Lloyd, local democracy reporter