Reckless youths on motorbikes will be stopped - Ch Insp Sarah Taylor

It has been a busy few months for the North West’s Community Policing Team and we have enjoyed being able to get back to face to face working with our partners and local communities.

The North West Community Festival was held on 7 May with around 6,000 people attending and more than 50 community groups participating. The aim of the event was to offer young people and their families a day with learning and upskilling at its core in a fun and interactive way.

We will continue to play an active role in supporting community events over the summer and collaborate with partners to ensure they are safely delivered.

Recently we have seen an increase in the number of incidents involving the antisocial use of motorcycles within the Drylaw area and wider city. It concerns me greatly that young people continue to put themselves and others at risk by riding motorcycles dangerously.

We will not tolerate this behaviour and we are committed to tackling the issue and targeting offenders who put local communities at risk through their reckless conduct.

I am making a direct appeal to parents and carers and the wider public to assist us by reporting these instances which will help ensure that our resources focus in the right areas.

If you know of any of the young people involved in this activity and you are able to speak to them directly, then please make sure that they are fully aware of the risk they are posing both to the community and to themselves.

As we head into the summer months, it is important that those involved in this sort of criminality are identified and traced. I would ask anyone with information regarding this kind of behaviour to share that information and help us keep the residents of Edinburgh and our visitors safe.

Anyone with information about motorcycle crime or the dangerous use of motorcycles can speak to officers confidentially and anonymously on 101, or though the charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Finally I would like to say a personal thanks to Jonny Elliott, the North West Community Policing Inspector, who retires after 30 years police service at the end of June.

He has been instrumental in the delivery of our Community Policing response over the last five years, helping to improve community safety and wellbeing for our communities across the North West.

Please stay safe and continue to work with us, we are here to help.

Chief Inspector Sarah Taylor, Local Area Commander for North West Edinburgh