A WARNING has been issued over mountain bikers causing damage to the moors above Darwen.

The leader of the town council John East is now calling for action to stop them damaging tracks, peat bogs, rare birds and animals and scaring walking families.

It is two years since Darwen moors were engulfed in a blaze which destroyed thousands of nesting birds and wild animals.

The blaze caused close on a million pounds-worth of damage. More than 600 acres of heather-clad peat moor were lost and thousands of birds and animals perished.

Long stretches of new paths, dams and fire-breaks have been built since.

Now mountain bikers, many on motorised machines with heavy tyr, have returned to the moors speeding along around narrow paths and through bare peat bogs which have been slowly coming back to life after the week-long fire.

They are scarring the paths and surrounding areas leaving deep gouges.

Cllr East, Liberal Democrat town councillor for Darwen South Rural ward, said: "Inconsiderate riders are making the paths and tracks dangerous for walkers.

"And many hours of replanting and nurturing of wildlife by volunteers are being lost. It's heart-breaking.

"I am hoping to persuade Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council to clamp down on the bikers who are breaking the law by riding off the surfaced tracks and damaging the precious peat.

"Lots of warning signs are being put up but they are quickly broken off.

"I've had a lot of complaints from parents out for a walk with their families.

"All they hear, they tell me, is a shout of 'Out of the way!' and half-a-dozen riders tear past them.

"The area is a breeding ground for some rare and endangered birds such as the curlew, the golden plover and the short-eared owl.

"Once the long-delayed work on renovating Darwen Tower has been completed, we are hoping to encourage hundreds of local folk to once again take to walking carefully on the moors."

Darwen West ward Labour borough and town councillor Dave Smith said: "It's a long standing problem both on the moors and in Sunnyhurst Woods.

"We really need the police to catch them but it is going to be difficult to stop. We have to rely on goodwill."

Blackburn with Darwen Council has been approached for comment.