THE DISCLOSURE by police that weekend motor-bikers, speeding up to a staggering 160 mph, are using country roads in the north of the county as a racetrack will alarm many people, but, perhaps, may not surprise others.

For those familiar with the routes leading to Kirkby Lonsdale will know that, for years, the area has been a gathering ground for fast-driving motor-cyclists and that quasi-organised "races" are taking place.

But it is not just that this practice is crazy and deadly dangerous - seven bikers have been killed in this "racetrack zone" since February - it is also a criminally selfish and irresponsible menace to others.

It is so bad that, police say, many local farmers are afraid to use the roads at weekends because of the outrageous speeds that bikers go at.

And it is equally shocking that this recklessness is being fuelled by modern motor-cycle technology that now makes machines that can go at more than twice the speed limit and accelerate from nought to 60 mph in less than three seconds. The zero-tolerance drive by police against these maniacs is absolutely right.

They aim to get dangerous bikers banned and made uninsurable.

But it is also up to the courts and the insurance companies to back them to the hilt.

And it is up to the police themselves to wage a full-time war on these motor-cycle madmen.

For, as the evidence of their own anti-speeding drives shows, of those breaking the limit on these roads, two-thirds are bikers.

They should hound and harry these hooligans relentlessly until the word spreads among the motor-cycle community that Lancashire's roads are a total no-go area for racers

For, though they may risk scattering themselves on the road surface for their selfish weekend thrills, they have no right at all to jeopardise the lives and safety of others.

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