A farmer has called for a crackdown on motorcyclists who race scrambler bikes in a national park.

Roland Hill, the owner of J&J Produce, warned the bikers were not just a danger to walkers in the area and themselves, but damaged the land.

Mr Hill, who leases about 12 acres of the 45-acre Hog Bay Park in Sandys, said: “It’s now getting to the point that it’s not safe any more.

“A lady stopped me a couple of weeks ago and said she almost got knocked down.

“If someone doesn’t do something soon, someone will get hurt – it’s getting out of hand.”

He added: “I have been driving through on my tractor. I cant hear them because of the tractor, and almost hit them.

“I’m not expecting them to be there doing 40 miles per hour on the pathways. It is dangerous.”

Mr Hill said: “Government spends tens of thousands of dollars fixing the property and it is just being destroyed by a bunch of kids on these scrambler bikes.

“They are mainly destroying the road and pathways but they drive through the fields and have driven over my crops.

“They have no regard for anything. It’s not a scrambling track.”

Mr Hill said the bikers have been abusing agricultural land, woodland reserve and pathways at Hog Bay Park for about five years.

He added that neighbours had also complained about the noise generated by the bikes.

Mr Hill said that the parks department had tried to block access to bikes with barricades and had put up signs – but that they had been removed.

He added: “We have got to make the barricades stronger, maybe concrete them in to the ground.

“These kids have taken equipment up there to destroy them.”

A spokeswoman for the parks department said that “scrambling” at several parks was “a troublesome issue”.

She added: “To try and address the matter, large boulders have been placed or fencing has been put up in an effort to deter this kind of activity.

“Unfortunately, individuals have resorted to vandalism or the removal of the barriers.

“The parks department will look at other ways to protect these public areas.”

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