About a month ago, I spotted one of the uninsured illegal scooters on the road. There are many round here, electric scooters, motorcycles, quads, all ridden by youngsters wearing balaclavas.

They went into the car park of a local shop and hid round the back. I immediately called 999 in the hope that a local passing police car could be diverted.

When I got through, I was told they had to end the call as this wasn’t an emergency and to dial the police (I think it was 111 – anyway it was the non urgent number).

I called this number and was still on hold 15 minutes later when I got back home. I hung up without reporting.

A week later I spotted a oldish guy about my age, with no protective clothing at all, pushing a brand new 125 motorcycle along the pavement. This could well have been stolen he looked very dodgy.

Again I would have liked to speak to the police and called 111 and again, no answer after 20 minutes.

The potential theft pained me as I am a (legal) motorcyclist. But also if we can’t contact anyone, how are they ever going to stop the swarm of illegal, uninsured, untrained riders on these bikes and scooters causing mayhem and giving motorcycles a bad name? This could translate into the people doing 60 or more through the 30 limit where I live, which happens all the time and I am sure not just in my locality. Don’t get me started on that one.

Just as bad as this, where is the respect for the law the police or politicians? There doesn’t appear to be any!