A group of residents at Welsh Newton told the Ross Gazette that they have had enough of off road motorbikes illegally using the bridleway through the woods between Welsh Newton Common and Newton Court.

They said that there are lots of horse riders at Welsh Newton Common and this is the only Public Right Of Way in the village that they can ride horses on.

However, they claim that due to the risk of coming across bikes, many of them are now too scared to ride on the bridleway and are forced to ride on the roads instead.

One resident told the Ross Gazette that some riders have already had frightening and extremely dangerous experiences, where horses have panicked and bolted at the sound of screaming motorbikes approaching.

The horseriders have reported the matter to the police, the Safer Neighbourhood Team based at Ross-on-Wye police station. They have supplied the residents with laminated signs to place on the bridleway.

The spokesperson for the group, Welsh Newton Horse Riders told the Gazette that although these signs were put up over the weekend, motorbikes are ignoring them and are still illegally using the Public Right Of Way, despite the police signs.

If anyone knows who is riding a bike in this area they should contact the police.

There are some regular offenders and other ’visiting’ offenders.