A POLICE crackdown on youngsters who ride motorbikes without licences and insurance has seen 11 machines seized.

A further 23 warnings have been issued to youngsters who have used parks and roads in the New Bury area as a racetrack.

Police have targeted bikers over the last two weeks after residents claimed the constant revving of engines was making their lives a misery.

The bikes were impounded under the Police Reform Act and will be released if the owners pay a £105 fee within 21 days.

But if the bikes are not claimed they will be destroyed.

Police said motorbike hot-spots had been targeted on Lucas Road playing fields and in the Buckley Lane area.

Sgt Wayne Readfern, of the mobile police station, Bolton Copshop, said: "Our activity has ensured it is now a lot quieter, so much so that one elderly man came in and told us he had the first unbroken night's sleep in months because he wasn't being disturbed by youths riding motorbikes illegally.

"There are certainly less people riding in the area now because they know we mean business."