Police see results targeting Market Drayton Boy Racers
Police in Market Drayton have started to turn the tide on nuisance ‘boy racers' who had been making residents' lives a misery.
Complaints about youths gathering with their vehicles on Towers Lawn Car Park and outside the park in Buntingsdale Road had increased during the first half of 2012.
Engine revving, loud music, shouting, littering, handbrake turns and skidding were just some of the issues causing concern to residents, often continuing until the early hours of the morning.
Officers have also had complaints about anti-social driving across the town, including loud exhausts and music.
Sergeant Conrad Smith, who previously dealt with boy racers in Oswestry, has begun to tackle the problem and has already had some success in moving them out of the town and residential areas and onto the Burnside Industrial Estate.
"There is no single ‘quick fix' to the problem and we are carrying out a mixture of enforcement and education to ensure a long-term solution," he said.
"Police will move them on when they cause a nuisance and, as an authorised vehicle examiner, I have stopped and examined cars, with several notices issued to drivers for faults such as noisy exhausts and defective tyres.
"After some initial issues on the industrial estate, there are now encouraging signs, such as the drivers and their passengers using black sacks for their rubbish rather than leaving it strewn around.
"We have not had any calls in recent weeks about boy racers but there is still work to be done."
Sergeant Smith met with residents and visited the problem sites with West Mercia Police Crime Risk Advisor, Charlie Naylor and Market Drayton Councillor Brian Gillow.
Further enforcement work will take place in the coming months, along with visits to the garages where the drivers were having their MOTs.
"Many of the defects I have issued notices for would be an MOT fail, therefore we need to do some work around why these cars are passing their MOT and which garages are doing it," he said.
Sergeant Smith added that Section 59 Warnings will be issued to drivers who continue to drive in an anti-social manner and cause a nuisance, which last for 12 months.
If the driver or vehicle is caught causing a nuisance again in the next 12 months the vehicle can be seized and, if not collected after paying for recovery and storage costs, it will be crushed.
"Section 59 of the Police Reform Act gives police the power to seize vehicles that are causing a problem, although we prefer this to be a last resort," said Sergeant Smith.
Image above from Flickr.com James Laurence Stewart's photostream - a generic image and not of any cars involved
