Council has rock-solid plan to slow hoons

BRIGHTON Council will deploy anti-hooning rocks at Viola Crescent at Gagebrook in response to shocking video footage of hooligan drivers.

It comes after one fed-up neighbour gathered months of video footage of the hoons who, she says, have been terrorising the neighbourhood.

The elderly woman, who asked not to be named, said the reckless driving had escalated in recent months and kept the neighbourhood awake at night.

“When I moved here it was a fantastic place, then Housing stuck drug dealers here four to five years ago and the kids have grown up to be drug addicts,” she said.

“They were just little kids, young teenagers going to school, now they’re burning out the roads all over the place.

“In the last couple of months the whole of Gagebrook has become targeted. There’s a [house] on Deak and Thistle street — right outside their place it’s nothing but black marks.”

Her CCTV footage shows hoons repeatedly driving off the road and on to the grass, filling the air with smoke from burned tyres.

Brighton Mayor Leigh Grey said the council would be placing small boulders along the grass to prevent cars going off the road.

Mr Grey said the rocks were a simple method to deter drivers, but that hooning was ultimately a matter for police to deal with.

“Hooning and the like is a police matter and we recommend people who have issues with it to report it to the authorities,” he said.

“Council has been putting boulders and restricting access to those areas for the last 10 to 15 years as a preventive measure.”