Cops shut bike meet

Police closed down the bike meet at The Wheel, Worfield, near Bridgenorth, Shropshire on Wednesday night (June 22) – amid a storm of protest from riders.

Witness Guy Graham, told motorcyclenews.com: “There was heavy police presence, more than normal, CCTV van, two officers with a hand-held video camera, a police bike sat outside the car park all night, three different cars going back and forth along the road, and a helicopter overhead.

“Plus there were around 10 officers inside the pub, and I’m told a road block pulling all the bikes on the approach from the Wolverhampton side.

“At about 9.15pm the landlady came on the loudspeaker that was being used to play music to the crowd, telling us that the police were shutting the event down due to ‘public safety concerns’. Needless to say, there was quite a lot of shouting, whistling and booing at the officers as they left the pub – plus a few missiles thrown at them. The landlady made a defiant speech asking us to all come back next week.

“In the 5 or 6 years I’ve been going, I’ve never seen any trouble, or even any accidents. The police didn’t arrest anybody that I saw last night.

“How can this be justified when they continue to let football matches carry on where there is more likely to be trouble? As a taxpayer I am disgusted at the amount of money last night’s operation cost, money which could have been better spent on catching people who are really a menace to society, not law abiding motorcyclists gathering at a pub.”

Another witness, who asked not to be named, said: “Not only, were bikers being harassed on the way to the meet, they were being videoed by a mobile video unit like football hooligans or terrorist suspects.

“The Landlady of the Wheel, who has had the meet on her premises for the last nine years and has run the pub for twenty, got on the P.A. and aired her disgust at what had been done and asked for the support of the bikers I for one give her mine wholeheartedly.”

MCN is investigating this incident. Read more about it in next week’s issue – out on June 29.