Sports clubs 'devastated' by off-road riding damage

Sport clubs have described the "devastating impact" of off-road riding which they say risks player safety and churns up playing fields.

A rugby club in Kent said team members had suffered ankle injuries from damage to the surface caused by riders using vehicles to plough up pitches.

While a Sussex cricket team described how its wickets, along with another club's nearby, were deliberately damaged over the winter.

The government says police will be able to more easily seize and destroy vehicles used for anti social behaviour under new powers introduced in July.

Vandals have been ripping up sports pitches affecting football, rugby, cricket and golf clubs around the UK.

Players from Cliffe Crusaders Rugby Football Club said the recreational ground they use in Medway had been affected for a number of years.

"We're seeing more and more damage occurring from motorbikes, off-road vehicles, e-scooters and electric bikes that are putting people in jeopardy," head coach Chris Jones said.

Before one match, he said he was worried about the safety of players and spectators when a group of young people turned up during the warm up.

"Both teams were getting ready to play when they were doing doughnuts and being a real nuisance," Jones said.

"That alone was enough to almost prevent the game going ahead."

Dean Cogger has been a player and coach for nearly a decade.

"It's devastating," he said of the damage.

"It creates a lot of hazards and safety risks. Deep rivets, damaging tyre marks, the ground gets hard very quickly and we have had resulting injuries, lots of ankle damages."

Cliffe Woods Colts Football Club use the same ground and have had to postpone games, according to club chair Ray Swatton.

"We've been over here and the bikes have been riding around in between spectators," he said. "We try to stop them but they just ignore you."

He described it as "a nightmare sometimes".

"We confront them but we get abuse," Swatton added.

Cliffe and Cliffe Woods Parish Council said it had spent thousands of pounds installing barriers at Cliffe Recreation Ground to prevent incursions.

Barry Dibble, chair of the council, said: "It's been a problem with quad bikes and off road bikes for a number of years, but it has got worse over the past year or so."

He said extra measures had been put in on the field corners at entrances, but that it was "a very expensive use of parish council funds".

Over the winter, cricket clubs in both Kent and Sussex were also damaged by vehicles.

One rider was seen riding up and down the square at Burgess Hill cricket club.

Nearby St Andrew's Cricket Club was also targeted by bikers.

Sam Kirwin from the club spoke to the BBC before the season began and said riders had caused damage to their wickets.

"You can see tyre marks of what we assume are bikes or scooters that have been used on the square," he said, adding that with the outfield "relatively untouched" he believed it was a "deliberate act at the cricket ground".

As a community-run cricket club with volunteers preparing the pitches, he described the damage as "frustrating".

"We take great pride in our square and our groundsman Scott does a lot of work all the way through the winter," he added.

Earlier this year BBC South East joined Kent Police on an operation targeting the illegal use of vehicles off road and in urban areas.

In three days 30 vehicles were confiscated, including a modified off road bike which had been adapted so it was capable of reaching 70mph (112km/h).

Under the Policing and Crime Act 2026, police forces have been given new powers to seize vehicles used anti-socially without the need to issue a warning first.

The time police must wait before being able to destroy a seized vehicle has been reduced from 14 to seven days, making it harder for offenders to reclaim and reuse them.

Crime and Policing Minister Sarah Jones said: "People across the country are fed up with off-road bikes tearing through parks, dangerous e-scooters on pavements and the chaos of illegal car meets."

She added that new powers gave police the tools they neede to "seize and destroy the vehicles that cause so much disruption to our local communities".