North Wales Police have been thanked for taking steps to tackle illegal and irresponsible off-road drivers by a county councillor who has been urging action for many years.
Cllr Mabon ap Gwynfor (pictured), who represents the Llandrillo/Cynwyd ward, also thanked the police for heeding his advice to use drones to tackle the problem.
He said: "Illegal and irresponsible off roaders have been a scourge in this area for many years.
"We regularly hear complaints of how grazing land and wildlife are damaged on the Berwyn Mountains by irresponsible off-roaders. In turn these give the majority of those who enjoy the past time responsibly a bad name.
"What these irresponsible drivers don't understand, or don't care for, is that their actions damage the countryside and people's livelihoods.
"These mountains and hills are difficult enough to scrape out a living, let alone having to spend more on fixing fences, posts, gates, walls and other things because of the actions of a few selfish people. They're also home to rare flaura, fauna and ground nesting birds. It's a Site of Special Scientific Interest, which should be respected."
Last year Cllr ap Gwynfor called on the police to use drones to help tackle the problem.
He said: "It's very difficult to police the activity given its nature. The irresponsible drivers can speed off in almost any direction especially in such a remote area like the Berwyns.
"This is why I called for the police to consider using drones. I'm glad to see that they are using this technology to assist them and that they had a successful operation over the weekend.
"The police are called on to do a lot of work, and are under serious financial pressures, so they must be thanked for listening to our concerns and working with our communities to help tackle them.
"I'm also grateful to Arfon Jones, the Police and Crime Commissioner, for listening to us when he put the police budget together."
The Dee Valley Policing team updated their Facebook page saying:
@Northwalespolice conducted a joint operation on Saturday 17/02/18 targetting the ongoing off road related problems in Llangollen, Corwen, Llandrillo, Nantyr and also across to Llanarmon DC, Glyn Ceiriog and Chirk areas.
We had a number of resources dedicated to the operation including 14 officers, 2 4x4 patrol vehicles, 2 4x4 Roads Policing vehicles, 2 unmarked scrambler bikes, and 2 marked police vehicles. For this operation we also had use of the NWP Drone.
The operation was a massive success with 58 vehicles stopped, 16 Vehicle Defect Rectification Scheme Tickets, 2 Traffic Offence Report Tickets and 1 vehicle seized for no insurance.
Dee Valley SNT (Safer Neighbourhood Team) would like to thank all of the officers and units involved in Saturdays operation!!!
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