Speed bumps fail to deter park and ride car cruisers
‘AT LEAST 200’ VEHICLES SHOWED UP WEEKS LATER
RESIDENTS fighting a four-year battle against car cruisers in Toton say the situation is “bedlam”.
Homeowners living near the tram Park & Ride next to Bardill’s Island on the A52 have been subject to noisy car meets for nearly five years.
Tram company NET installed speed bumps in the car park just weeks ago, hoping that owners of the vehicles would think twice about using the council-owned land.
But on Saturday, March 9, hundreds turned out - and caused more nuisance than ever with their screeching tyres and loud engines.
One person said: “There must have been three or four hundred people and at least 200 cars. They were queueing to get in and some were parking on the main road and walking. It was bedlam. It really was.
“It’s driving me mad. We’ve had enough of it now. You can hear it and smell the smoke. It’s terrible. You’re on tenterhooks all the time. Your wellbeing is being affected. You spend all this money to live where you live and then you’ve got this happening.
“It’s going to affect house prices as well because every time you report it, there’s an incident number, it goes down as anti-social behaviour and it gets put on the crime figures.”
The Post has covered the problems of car meets in Toton since 2020. In the most recent update, in January, Toton councillor Teresa Cullen publicly asked the car cruisers to “leave us alone”.
Councillor Cullen said a solution looked to have been finally reached through talks between Broxtowe Borough Council and NET, with speed bumps put in place on Friday, March 1. But they didn’t work.
A video filmed in the early hours of Sunday, March 10, shows a car spinning around the car park while hundreds of spectators watch on. The motorists ignored the speed bumps and continued anyway until dispersing after police were called.
It means that a new solution will have to be sought. Among the options are an injunction, meaning the police could take action against anti-social behaviour, or concrete flower boxes in the car park, to ensure there is not enough space for vehicle manoeuvres.
The latter will require even more funding than has originally been spent. Councillor Cullen, however, who was voted in during the May 2023 elections, vowed to not stop until a solution has been found.
She said: “It was hugely disappointing for us. We’d been waiting for the ramps to be installed and even had a flurry of complaints about them from people who didn’t like the fact it takes longer to get into the car park. So the disappointment of finding out the car meets could still happen – I was gutted. But I am absolutely determined. We are going to find a solution to this.”
The car park is Nottingham City Council property, despite being in Broxtowe borough. Councillor Cullen described the situation as “strange” and “difficult”, because Broxtowe Borough Council cannot easily allocate money and the city council has no money to spend.
A NET spokesman commented: “We fully understand and share the frustration of local residents when it comes to a more widespread social problem that needs to be tackled in partnership with a host of other agencies, including the police and local authorities. We are playing our part by installing new traffic calming measures, in addition to those already in place, and are considering further steps we can take to deter this anti-social behaviour.
“However, any plans to restrict vehicle access and their movement when on site have to be balanced against the needs of legitimate users of the facility. They may also take some time to install, should adequate funding be secured for the required infrastructure. In the meantime, we have stepped up our parking enforcement patrols and continue to provide CCTV footage to the police to help them identify those responsible.”