MP calls for ban on car meetings
SOUTHPORT MP Damien Moore called for supercar meet-ups to be banned from Southport amid fears for public safety.
The Conservative MP said he witnessed one of the meets while walking around Marine Lake and saw cars driving dangerously in public car parks on Promenade and Marine Drive.
According to Mr Moore, crowds had gathered around the car parks without social distancing while the cars’ high speeds and sharp braking posed a threat to families enjoying a day on the seaside.
He warned that the events, which occur fairly frequently in the town. “can get lost” and urged police to do more to prevent them from happening in the first place.
Mr Moore said: “I saw big groups of people, and lots of souped-up cars travelling at speed, and driving dangerously, on both the Promenade and in the Marine Drive car park.
“There were families around and I was concerned for their safety.
“These car meet-ups can get lost. First of all, they were speeding and driving dangerously and slamming their handbrakes on as crowds of people watched and filmed them.
“Secondly they were all parked in a pay and display zone but no-one was paying. There was no enforcement at all. I looked at the car windscreens and there were no pay and display tickets on any of them.
“We want to encourage families to come and visit Southport and when they are here we want it to be open and relaxing for them. They shouldn’t be left feeling intimidated. We don’t want these people here discouraging them from doing so or making it unsafe for them to be in the same area.
“They were all over the car park.
“The police didn’t turn up for a long time but when they did, there were only three of them. There wasn’t a lot they could do with so few officers.
“We don’t want Southport to become a problem place for meet-ups like this, we want it to be a very family friendly resort.
“What I witnessed at the weekend was terrible, absolutely terrible.”
The Conservative MP wants to ensure that action is taken to prevent further incidents happening in Southport in the future.
He said: “I want to ask Merseyside Police to put some forward monitoring in place on this.
“There must be some way of finding how they communicate where they are going to be and when, such as through Facebook.’’
Mr Moore added: “I would then like to see police taking further action to prevent them from driving so recklessly and to either disperse or arrest them.
“This is not what we want to see here in Southport.”