Mountain bikers in the St Ives Estate country park near Bradford have been accused of terrorising other trail users.

As reported in the The Telegraph and Argus, Pam Laking, the chair to friends of St Ives, has described mountain bikers as a major problem to other trail users including horses. She said: “They tend to be so aggressive and unpleasant. One of our committee members has been nearly knocked over and there are many other examples.”

She spoke of one particular incident where mountain bikers crossed paths with two horse riders. The mountain bikers reportedly said: “If you don’t get out of the way we’ll ram the horses”.

Her position was unfortunately echoed by Simon Cooke, a local Conservative councillor, who said: “The view of the general public is that some mountain bikers have got far too big for their boots and we need to manage interaction between them and other users of places like St Ives.”

The council is now drawing up posters that will be placed in the park to deter anti-social cycling

St Ives, in Bingley, is a 550 acre estate that has a collection of sanctioned trails built by the Singletraction volunteer group and is crossed by bridleways that are legal to ride on. This incident follows similar accusations by a councillor in Somerset who accused riders of “desecrating” the Quantocks.