CALLOUS thieves stole two motorbikes from a new motopark designed to steer youngsters from a life of crime.

The off-road bikes were in a container close to the recently opened BASE motopark, New Bridge Road, Ellesmere Port.

The burglars forced open the container doors in Dutton Green, Little Stanney, breaking a lock and forcing a back door off its hinges.

It is believed the thieves struck between 11pm on Monday, August 8, and 1am on Tuesday, August 9.

It is a cruel blow for the park, which only opened on August and has yet to have its official launch.

BASE Motopark’s Graham Lee said: “BASE Motopark CIC is a community youth project aiming to give local young people somewhere safe and controlled to ride off-road bikes and quads legally without causing disturbances within the community.

“We’re really disappointed that two of our bikes have been stolen when we’re trying to do something good within the community for the benefit of young people. But this isn’t going to stop our work – in fact this is exactly the type of attitude and behaviour that we are going to tackle.

“We are working closely with local schools to give pupils the opportunity to learn to ride at the park and are developing in-school reward schemes and a school engagement programme to provide an incentive to children who work well in school – with points to be used at the track.

“Not only this, we will also help to tackle school truancy by encouraging young people to attend to become a member at the park and a volunteer programme to promote a good work ethic is in place – where youngsters can spend time working at the park marshalling, monitoring the car park or cleaning up and receiving free-of-charge training in return.

“We want to get across a clear message that this type of crime is completely unacceptable and give young people the confidence and passion through biking to choose another route than this one in life. Working with the council and the police we’re determined to stamp out anti-social behaviour such as this in our area.”

A white Honda 2005 CRF250R with red Hahn hubs, an akrapovic titanium exhaust, SDS seat, talon sprockets and black Excel rims was stolen.

The other bike, belonging to Mark Bailey, was a yellow 2008 Suzuki RMZ 250f with full Makita and Rockstar graphics. It has a crack on the bar clamps.

The Honda bike belonged to Andy Paul, a director of BASE who helped set up the track to bring a high-quality track to the youngsters and adults of Ellesmere Port.