‘Bikers are human’ says councillor Richard Butler

Notts councillor Richard Butler probably didn’t realise the controversy his comments would make when he referred to ‘tanked up bikers’ terrorizing rural communities, but he did make the time to join us for a live webchat to explain his words.

He told registered users of motorcyclenews.com that his comments were intended as light-hearted banter in a discussion which he hoped would remain internal. He claimed to be acting after between six to ten complaints from residents, as well as from accident figures from the year 2001-2002.

” I am a new councillor, and hadn’t been particularly aware of road fatalities, and the 22 fatalities seemed excessively high and I was genuinely concerned about that ”

He declined an invitation to a bike meeting, saying, ” I’m afraid, being a sad councillor I find I have to spend most of my time in meetings, but thank you for the invite. ” But he did take the time to acknowledge that bikers contribute a lot to charity, and that the complaints he received were directed against a minority of motorcyclists.

There will be a full transcript of the chat published shortly.