A POLICE clampdown on speeding tourists in Teesdale and Weardale has found local people to be the real culprits.

Officers have been concentrating on back roads in the dales over the summer, after a string of complaints from villagers about speeding motorists.

Parish councils wrote letters of complaint to the police about visiting motorists speeding through villages and urged a clampdown.

The problem, which the police claim occurs every summer, has traditionally been blamed on motorcyclists and tourists.

But a push by traffic officers to stamp out speeding, particularly along the B6277 road through Middleton-in-Teesdale and Langdon Beck, revealed the majority of those stopped for speeding were local drivers.

The latest figures for checks in Teesdale and Weardale found 460 of the 500 drivers pulled over for speeding were from the dales, and none of those prosecuted were riding motorbikes.

Inspector Dave Allaway, of Barnard Castle Police, said much of the problem lay with local motorists who use the roads regularly.

He said: "People always tend to think the problem is caused by tourists or motorcyclists, which is sometimes true, but most of the time it is local people that are the problem.

"They think that because they know the roads they can get away with driving too fast, but that is not the case.

"We want people to know that we have responded to complaints and we are increasing our presence in Teesdale and Weardale in a bid to stop motorists speeding."

Police are also worried that several recent unreported crashes, involving both cars and motorbikes, have been caused by speeding.

Officers have only found out about the accidents through speaking to witnesses.

But the police are confident that further checks on speeding along the dales roads will reduce the problem considerably.

Insp Allaway said: "We will continue to clamp down on speeders and we will be looking at other ways of deterring motorists.

"It is a problem that we have been aware of for many years, especially on some roads in Teesdale, but that does not mean that we are ignoring it - quite the opposite."