Anger as chaos-causing off-road bikers pull wheelies near to Doncaster park playground

Fed-up users of Elmfield Park say gangs of off-road bikers have been causing problems in the park for a number of months, riding across play areas, ripping up grass and scaring children.

One mum has called for action to be taken after the latest incident which took place last week.

She said: “Off road motor cycles have been driven recklessly around the park for months now and nothing seems to be being done about it.

"The riders will often cut across the children's play area as they speed around the park. I have reported it multiple times and it is sill happening.”

She says she has contacted Doncaster Council and South Yorkshire Police as well as the force’s Off Road team.

“We had an incident where a motorcyclist overtook my daughter while she was riding her bike. It scared her immensely to the point she ran away crying.

“They are in the park on an almost daily basis.

"The off road motorcyclists are hanging about next to the children's play area and not long after this video was taken the motor cyclist drove by the children's play area at speed.”

It is the latest in a long line of problems in Elmfield Park and residents have long been calling for security measures to be beefed up in the popular park.

The park, which is sandwiched between Carr House Road and Bennetthorpe has been plagued by crime, anti-social behaviour in recent years with repeated calls for CCTV and improved lighting from worried locals.

Last summer, the park was at the centre of a rape probe after a teenage girl was grabbed from behind and pushed to the ground by a 28-year-old man.

In recent years, the park has been attempting to shake off its unwanted tag as a crime hot spot with cash for improvements.

The most shocking incident was the killing of youngster Casey Kearney who was randomly attacked and stabbed to death as she walked through the park in 2012.

The 13-year-old was targeted by Hannah Bonser, 26, who had a history of mental health problems, as she strolled through Elmfield Park on Valentine’s Day of that year. She was jailed for life for the attack.

In May 2018, a 16-year-old boy fled into Elmfield Park after he was raped by a man nearby.

In August of the same year, a teenage boy was attacked and robbed of his bike by two other teenagers in the park, while in 2019, the body of a woman was found in a flat close to the park on Carr House Road and a murder investigation was launched.

Also in 2019, police launched a hunt for a missing Albanian mother and daughter who had last been spotted in the playground at the park while in the same year, officers revealed they were probing a number of robberies on teenagers in Elmfield Park.