Police issue 50-mile wide boy racer ban as locals grow sick of speedsters
Police have declared a 50-square mile area of Essex out of bounds to boy racers after they imposed a ban on motor meets following a high number of complaints.
A dispersal order now covers an area including Epping, Loughton and Ongar after concerns that hundreds of car fans are heading for a meet where young drivers show off their pimped-up motors and perform dangerous high-speed stunts. Essex police have moved to halt tonight's planned event.
An Essex police spokesman said today: "We have received a number of calls relating to car meets in the area involving between 150 and 200 vehicles. The events are causing disruption in the areas and in order to reduce the risk of further anti-social behaviour in the areas, a dispersal order has been put in place.
"It covers the whole of Harlow and Epping Forest District, including the towns of Harlow, Epping, Ongar, Loughton, and the surrounding villages in these specified areas. The order gives officers the power to instruct anyone suspected of causing antisocial behaviour to leave the area and not return within 48 hours. It will remain in place until 9pm tonight."
It comes as parents in Wiltshire were warned children are being put at risk as reckless motorists speed down a residential road treating it as a racetrack. “I’ve lived here for 20 years and it’s been getting worse and worse in the last five,” the anonymous resident said.
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“The road is like a racetrack, you get boy racers in their noisy cars, or people overtaking when I’m already going the speed limit, or the buses thundering along. I hear them go past at all hours. They use it as an alternative to going through Pinehurst because there are no speed bumps. There might be another accident, people walk with their children on the pavements along this street.”
New high-tech noise detecting traffic cameras will catch out selfish drivers who illegally alter their cars, transport chiefs announced last year. The devices are set to be trialled in four areas in the next two months, with microphones set to identify motorists revving engines and using illegal exhausts.
The camera records an image of the vehicle and its noise level, creating a "digital package of evidence" which can be used by police to issue fines, according to the DfT. It was developed at a private test track to prove its accuracy. The DfT said road noise can contribute to health problems such as heart attacks, strokes and dementia.
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