Police are clamping-down on rat-running motorists risking head-on smashes by driving the wrong way up one-way streets.

Officers have issued fixed penalty notices to a "substantial" number of drivers caught sneaking up two notorious short-cuts in Cottingley.

Sgt Esther Hobbs said residents had complained about a worrying number of Bradford-bound commuters cutting out traffic snarl-ups on nearby Cottingley New Road by flouting no-entry signs on two residential back streets.

The crackdown centred around one-way systems on the Linkway and Bradford Old Road created by Bradford Council to stop rat-running from Bingley direction last year.

"We have issued a lot of fixed penalty tickets in recent days to drivers who ignore the no-entry signs and travel in the wrong direction," said Sgt Hobbs.

"These drivers are abusing a one-way system secured by local residents to cut down on traffic which had been rat-running to cut out the congestion on Cottingley New Road." Colleague PC Claire Linus said the motorists were acting irresponsibly, adding: "It's downright dangerous because drivers going down the hill do not expect people to be heading towards them.

"If drivers insist on continuing this practice it is a matter of time before there is a head-on collision."

Sgt Hobbs said they hoped the exercise would reinforce the message that rat-running along one-way streets was not only illegal but very risky.

Bradford Old Road resident David Clegg said many motorists were intentionally disregarding no-entry signs and running the risk of creating a smash.

But he said the lay-out of Bradford Old Road one-way system could appear misleading to drivers new to the area.

He said motorists could be confused because the one-way system begins around the corner from Bradford Old Road's junction with Cottingley New Road, after the Cottingley Business Park office development.

"Bradford Old Road should have been made totally one-way, from top to bottom for the system to work," he said.

He added that his request to Bradford Council for a three-and-a-half ton limit and 20 mph limit had been turned down.

"You still get seven-and-a-half ton lorries when it's too small a road for them."

A resident of Manor Drive, a feeder street to Linkway and Bradford Old Road, said the one-way systems were effective, but had made it more difficult for householders to reach their homes.