The use of drones to catch people in Cheshire speeding on illegally adapted e-bikes will be a 'gamechanger', the county's police and crime commissioner has said.

PCC Dan Price said he couldn't yet give a date when this would be deployed but Cheshire Police is pursuing the latest drone technology and is at the front of the queue in the North West for using that capability.

He said he became aware, during a citizens' assembly, of how big a problem speeding e-bikes had become for local people.

"I am very pleased that that assembly meant that I immediately started touching base with the national police chiefs' lead in this, and got Cheshire prioritised ahead of other areas in the North West and I have no doubt that that is going to be an invaluable tool at dealing with e-bikes," Mr Price told Friday's (September 12) meeting of the Cheshire police and crime panel.

"Having the ability to have drone technology that can see a bike, or other device, travelling way over the 15mph limit is going to be invaluable."

Cheshire PCC Dan Price (Credit: PCC)

Mr Price said there had been operations where officers had been going out proactively looking for e-bikes which had been adapted so they could go above the legal speed limit, but said this was not the most efficient use of police time.

"Having the public report it and having drone technology in the air, in that proximity, within a minute, is absolutely going to be a game changer," Mr Price told the panel.

"And to be able to follow them somewhere and then make a seizure of that equipment where they've got to, as opposed to some of the scenarios that we've seen where there's been police officers chase individuals, and we've had fatalities as a consequence – not happened here in Cheshire, I'm pleased to say, but we don't want that as a solution either."