Burnout brigade wear out welcome
Residents in a Stoke neighbourhood are fed up with ongoing burnouts in their street, and are frustrated at a lack of enforcement action.
For the past two months, residents in Polstead Rd say they have been kept awake by early-morning disturbances from vehicles associated with a property in the street.
On Monday, there were black skidmarks and shredded tyres on the road leading to a Polstead Rd house.
Several residents from Polstead Rd and the surrounding area talked to Stuff, under the condition of anonymity.
Neighbours say the disturbances have been caused by vehicles coming from the same Polstead Rd property.
This included burnouts being done on the driveway of the property and the road nearby, and cars being driven at speed and dangerously.
They said this had been going on almost every weekend for the past two months, usually during the early hours of the morning.
A resident living further down Polstead Rd said the situation was ‘‘out of control’’.
‘‘For a period it was happening every weekend.
‘‘These guys were doing burnouts until the tyres popped, for about two minutes straight – you could see the smoke billowing through the streetlights.’’
One Marsden Valley resident said the noise from the burnouts was so loud, it could heard well beyond just the neighouring houses.
‘‘If it’s this bad where we are, I can’t imagine what it’s like for the next door neighbours.’’
As well as the noise, nearby houses have had to deal with the sight and smell of the smoke from the burning tyres, having to keep windows closed to avoid the smell.
Various neighbours said they had contacted council, police and confronted the residents of the property, but to no avail.
‘‘We just keep getting passed around between council, noise control and the police,’’ one resident said.
‘‘It’s ridiculous, it’s stupid, I’m afraid someone’s going to get hurt. Something’s got to be done.’’
Nelson City Council and police were contacted, but were unable to provide comment at this stage.