Protecting moors must be a priority says MP

12.00.00am GMT Tue 26th Feb 2008

Rochdale MP Paul Rowen is launching a campaign to 'protect our moors'. Mr Rowen was speaking after taking part in a six mile hike aimed at continuing the campaign against reopening Ding Quarry. The protestors saw a great number of off road and quad bikes on their walk, as well as spotting massive damage to our moors and burnt out vehicles.

Mr Rowen said: "There is a twofold reason for this campaign. One, these bikes are dangerous and the other is that they rip up our moors. There is another problem with burnt out cars and other litter. These are things that put law abiding residents off using our open spaces. It is high time that we worked together and used every tactic possible to get these dangerous vehicles off our moors. I don't want our moors to continue to be a 'charlatan's playground.' These people are predominantly from out of town and they are destroying our valued open spaces and we don't want them here.

"I am asking people to be vigilant and if they see people on bikes, tearing up our moors then please report it to the police. I will be speaking to the police, asking them to increase their patrols. For too long our walkers, riders and local residents have suffered. I will also be asking the Council to look at the increase in these incidents by people accessing the moors via the wind farm access road and what we can do. The Council take a very hard line on this - the work of Mark Reynolds and our Community Safety Team should be applauded but it seems as though it's not getting through to the off road bikes."

There is a special police database and a specific form which people reporting incidents should fill in.