WICKFORD is being overrun by “yobs on bikes” with police pledging to crackdown on the anti-social riders.

Residents have long complained about teenagers and young adults on dirt bikes and quadbikes driving dangerously through The Wick, High Street and the town centre.

On Saturday, May 14, Essex Police officers seized a dirt bike from a teenager who had been riding in an anti-social manner along the high street.

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Radwinter Avenue resident Sarah Wiseman, 52, says she lives in fear of being mowed down whenever she goes into the centre of town.

“They just have no respect for the laws of the road and with the way they drive somebody is going to get hurt,” the mother-of-two said.

“Sometimes when I have my kids with me I’m scared of shopping on the High Street because these yobs on bikes are speeding up and down it constantly.”

Councillor David Harrison, leader of the Wickford Independents, says the town has long been blighted by dangerous motorcyclists and quad bikers.

“For many years now we have had teenagers in the high street, revving engines loudly, speeding, or trying to do wheelies along the road,” Mr Harrison said.

“It’s something we want to bring to an end because it leaves residents feeling intimidated.”

The Wickford Park councillors wants to see a “larger police presence” in the town to combat the issues.

“It is no good us being sent a couple of officers to patrol every now and then, we need more than that,” he said.

“The community policeman and women we do have do a very good job, but they can’t be here all the time.

“Wickford is absolutely overrun with these youths on bikes, but it feels like there is no one to catch these people.”

An Essex Police spokesman said: “In the past few days we have been receiving a large number of complaints from the public regarding dirt bikes being ridden antisocially in and around Wickford High Street.

“On Saturday, May 14, plain clothes officers from The Billericay and Wickford Community Policing Team were patrolling around Wickford and seized one of these bikes.”