LAWS governing the use of trendy miniature motorbikes should be made stronger, according to the city's MP Mike Foster.

Mr Foster is calling on people to write to him or the Home Secretary John Reid after receiving a string of complaints about the bikes.

He wants police to target nuisance bikers by seizing the vehicles, but he is also calling for a review of their powers in case they need to be increased.

In January the Worcester News reported police were threatening to destroy the bikes if they were misused and had already begun confiscating them.

Mr Foster said he had received 12 complaints in just three months, including people riding the bikes over King George V Playing Fields off Brickfields Road and along footpaths in the Shap Drive area of Warndon.

"Dangerous, noisy and often ridden illegally.

"That's the verdict of many local residents on mini motos - the mini-motorbikes that are often driven late at night, at high speeds and on pavements and in parks," said Mr Foster.

"People are telling me, enough is enough - these mini motos are a menace and I want to drive them off our streets.

"By showing the Home Secretary the strength of feeling on this menace I'm sure we'll get action to put a stop to them." However Sally Matthews, owner of A&S Motorcycle Centre in Howsell Road, Malvern - which sells the more expensive models of the bike, up to £500 - said bikers needed somewhere to ride.

Her seven-year-old daughter Rebekah has been riding mini motorbikes since she was three and drives them on private land.

The shop has been looking for a suitable patch of land between Malvern and Worcester for bikers for the past few months.

She said: "At the moment there's nowhere for them to go so they're going to ride on the roads - not that I'm saying that makes it all right but it's a shame they don't have anywhere.."

Police can seize mini motorbikes under the Police Reform Act if ridden illegally or in a careless or anti-social way. As they are a motor vehicle, it is an offence under the 1835 Highways Act and 1988 Road Traffic Act to use them on a footpath. A Worcester police spokesman was unable to say how many bikes had been seized.

But he said: "Young people riding a mini moto or a powered scooter could be committing as many as seven offences unless they're on their own property or on someone else's with their permission.

"We'd, therefore, urge all riders - and parents - that the riding of mini motorbikes is restricted to private land where permission has been granted to use them."