We’ll just move somewhere else, says car enthusiast amid fight to stop meet-ups
LOCALS FRUSTRATED BY CONTINUED DISTURBANCE FROM ‘BOY RACERS’
A CAR enthusiast has had his say on the debate between residents and groups of drivers who are said to use the county’s streets as a “racetrack”.
Mark Taylor, 37, has been part of the “car scene” since he was 19 and also works in the trade as a mechanic.
He lives on the new Rivendell estate in Netherfield – right behind the car park of the Teal Park industrial units, where car fans congregate at weekends to show off their vehicles. He is one of them, but is at loggerheads with his neighbours, who hate the noise and have reported the issues to the police on multiple occasions to try to get it stopped.
But teetotal Mark says car meets are his equivalent of going to the pub for a pint, and that if they are told to leave one place, the group will “just move” elsewhere to do it.
In the past, he says they have unsuccessfully applied to use the old Rolls-royce and Langar airfields for their fun, but the police and council “crush” their dreams every time.
He asked: “When are they going to give us somewhere to go? Unless they do it’s going to carry on. If they allowed us some land, it could be revenue for the council. We could pay a fiver to get in.
“I’m teetotal, so my equivalent of going for a drink at the pub is to go to see my mates’ cars. If they stop us they’re stopping people from socialising.”
Mark even says that he and his pals are not deliberately causing a public nuisance and that for him, the car meets aren’t for racing or the revving of engines. It’s just “the occasional person” who starts doing donuts. It ruins it for myself and all the others,” says Mark. “The rest of us get tarred with that reputation.”
But he also defended them, saying that people who complain are the ones making the most noise. “They’re there for 20 or 30 minutes and then they disappear,” he said of the noisy cars.
“I don’t even hear them, or if I do, I do for two or three minutes and then they’re gone. And my house backs right onto it (the car park). People exaggerate the noise. I’ve heard people shouting and screaming at them to move on. They’re the ones making more noise.”
But others on the Rivendell estate disagreed. Mum Heather Rawson has phoned the police on multiple occasions about the noise, which has been a regular occurrence since she moved into her house a couple of years ago.
“It’s very annoying,” she said. “It’s always been an issue at the weekend and there is the odd weekday where you hear one or two people. The police arriving only deters them for a week or two then they start again.
“It keeps my daughter awake. It’s frustrating and stresses you out. They need somewhere to go – a racetrack or whatever. I do like living down here but it’s very annoying.”
Kieran Breeds, who lives a few doors down, echoed her frustrations. “It’s loud and annoying and upsets my dog. I feel like there’s a better use of their time,” he said.
A third resident, who lives on Magenta Way, which leads into the new estate, concurred. Ian, who didn’t want to provide his surname, said that he “definitely, 100%” welcomes action to stop the issue.
“It’s been horrendous,” he said. “They come up and down this road and there’s kids and cats. They’ll race around doing wheelies and God knows what. They wake kids up.
“They’ll be on the Loop Road on Friday and Saturday nights but we can hear them from here, screeching, with the cars going ‘pop, pop, bang, bang.’ It’s just a race track. The noise is horrendous.
“There was an incident a while ago where a car ended up on its roof in one of the fields nearby. Where there are no cameras there are no consequences. It’s an accident waiting to happen.”
On Thursday, April 18, local councillors Sam Smith and Mike Adams announced that through conversations with Nottinghamshire Police and the landowners of Teal Park, a number of preventative measures had been agreed and implemented.
These include the installation of a temporary “CCTV and siren system” at the site which alerts a “private mobile patrol unit”.
It also includes a “commitment” from the landowners of the industrial park to install gates at its entrance, with an installation date “to be confirmed”.
The police also “continue to conduct regular patrols”, the councillors said, which have led to action, including 13 Public Space Protection Order breaches, 15 warning notice issues and six car seizures.
Issues with car meets in Netherfield, Colwick, Carlton and surrounding areas have been prevalent for a number of years. In the past few weeks, residents near Daleside Road have spoken about their experiences, and in November, Councillor Adams asked car cruisers to “please stop doing these things” after a Halloween incident at an industrial estate.
Gedling Borough Council imposed a Public Spaces Protection Order in June 2023 which made a number of motor-related activities an offence, including racing, driving at speed or accelerating aggressively, performing stunts, playing music that is audible outside of the vehicle and driving in convoy. It remains in place, covering Colwick, Netherfield and the Gedling Access Road.
The punishment is a £100 fine. The council said 14 fines have been issued since it was set up.
Nottinghamshire Police set up an operation to deal with the car cruisers in November 2022 called Operation Triplefin. In November, the operation was to “still be making progress”.