Motorbike owners could need permits for use on private land

One Adelaide council is considering making its residents obtain permits to ride motorbikes on their own land — and the worst part? Residents would have to pay for the privilege.

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Adelaide Plains Council could be the first in South Australia to ask residents to obtain permits to ride motorbikes on private land, as part of a bid to crackdown on noisy neighbours.

Under the plan, landowners within 500 metres of where the motorbike would be ridden would need to give consent before a permit was issued.

Mayor Mark Wasley said the permit system would not apply to primary producers.

He said the proposed bylaw was a result of the council receiving requests from residents to take action on motorbike use, particularly on smaller, hectare-sized blocks.

The council covers towns including Mallala, Two Wells and Lewiston.

“We’ve had many complaints from people living in semirural areas on smaller blocks about neighbours or people across the road creating noise and dust with motorbikes,” Mr Wasley said.

“We’ve got some people who like quiet, versus some people who like riding trail bikes, and people attend our council meetings to raise these issues.

“We’re not trying to stop the use of quad bikes for farming activities like rounding up sheep.”

Mr Wasley said the permit plan would only go ahead if it drew strong community support.

That support will be put to the test when a draft proposal is released for public consultation on November 20. Submissions will close on December 11.

“While we’ve got people complaining about trail bikes, it could be the silent majority don’t have a problem – we won’t know until we put it to the test,” Mr Wasley said.

He said permit details were still to be finalised and the cost was likely to be minimal.

“This isn’t about revenue raising, the cost would purely be an administration fee.”

Mr Wasley said it was unlikely the council would make a final decision on the permit plan before March, to give elected members time to consider the feedback.

“Council’s decided to put this out there for the public to give us their feedback on. They could say it’s about time a local government body took up the challenge of dealing with this issue,” he said.