Residents concerned about a weekly meeting of bikers at a Tern Hill pub have been updated on a safety campaign targeted at the bikers.
Around 30 residents met with police, fire service and Shropshire Safer Roads Partnership representatives at the Stormy Petrel pub last Saturday.
The aim of the meeting was to inform people about the progress made by Operation Lightning, a police initiative launched in April to promote road safety among the hundreds of bikers who meet at the pub every Thursday.
Residents were shown a DVD film produced for the campaign called Dying for a Ride, based on an accident near the Stormy Petrel last year in which a Staffordshire man was killed while trying to do a stunt in front of other bikers.
PC Mick Sturland of Market Drayton Police, who organised the meeting, said: “I wrote to about 30 people who had complained to the police throughout the summer about the noise and speed of the bikers.
“Several people made the effort to turn up and it was good that they could see what we’ve been doing and offer some feedback.
“A lot of people ring up about the bikers and think nothing ever gets done because they’re still there, so residents were pleased that we’re actually starting to do something about it.
“The meeting went better than I thought because we’ve never had anything like this before and we’ll look at doing something similar again.”
As part of Operation Lightning, around 350 bikers have signed up to a Take Control rider-improvement course funded by the Department of Transport and PC Sturland said the offer would continue next year.
Meanwhile, Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service is to launch its own road safety campaign next year.
Details of the Go Safe campaign, to be launched in March to try and reduce the number of collisions involving motorcyclists, were revealed at last Saturday’s meeting by the fire service’s road safety officer Robert Rondel.
He said: “The Go Safe campaign is one of our main projects for next year and it’ll be a good opportunity for us to educate people about the dangers of excessive speed.”
By Winston Brown
