BOSSES at the Port Arcades say it is an 'ongoing battle' to drive out the youths who ride their bicycles dangerously through the shopping centre.

The Pioneer has received numerous complaints during the past few weeks about cyclists, who mainly ride BMX bikes, causing distress to shoppers.

Arcades management maintains its policy of banning bicycles is firmly in place but that problems may have become more prevalent due to the school holiday.

A spokeswoman said: 'Our policy is still the same and we are proactively targeting those who use bikes in the shopping centre.

'We have cameras monitoring the Arcades and if we spot incidents in our control room we radio our security team to deal with it immediately.'

She added: 'It probably seems worse because it's the summer holidays, when we do have problems with youths, but we are definitely trying to stop them. It's an ongoing battle.

'If we catch someone riding a bike we immediately get them to take it back where they came from. Sometimes we have to give people the benefit of the doubt if they've ridden through genuinely unaware of the ban.

'If we catch someone who is persistently riding their bike inside the Arcades then they will be banned.'