Councillor's fears over car cruise event in Peterborough this weekend

A Peterborough councillor has spoken of his fears over dangerous and anti-social driving in Peterborough this weekend as a car cruise is set to visit the city on Sunday.

While councillor Christian Hogg said most of the people who will visit the event on Sunday evening would cause no issues, it was inevitable that noise from some cars would cause a nuisance to residents long into the night.

Cllr Hogg, who has been working on the council committee to tackle problems caused by illegal and anti-social driving, has now called for police to disperse any illegal activity on Sunday night.

He said: “There is a static meet planned for Sunday night at the ‘Apex’ car park (Pleasure Fair Meadow Car Park on the corner of Oundle Road and Town Bridge).

“We know that noisy and anti-social driving go and in glove with events like this one.

"With it being bank holiday weekend, I fully expect it will be well attended.”

The static meet is scheduled to start at 7.30pm on Sunday – but on numerous occasions in recent years following meetings residents in the Ortons have been subjected to late night noise and dangerous driving.

Traffic calming measures were put in place at a known hotspot, Stapledon Road in the Ortons, and cllr Hogg said the measures had been successful, and was hoping they could be replicated elsewhere in the city.

He said: “The measures at Stapledon Road have worked, but it has just pushed the issue elsewhere. At Tresham Road, near Stapleton Road, there has been a big uplift in problems.

"We now need to look at where we can take action next.”

Cllr Hogg added: “The evidence we have seen is that a lot of the people causing the issues are not from Peterborough, but the city is seen as a soft option for people to come here, and carry out this activity, rather than take their chance with the authorities in their area.

"We need to let these tourists know that we are not open for that sort of business in Peterborough.”

Cllr Nicola Day, who represents the Orton Waterville ward, said: “The problem of car cruising around the Orton Waterville area has actually become worse over the last few weeks. Unfortunately, traffic calming measures in Stapledon Road have now moved the issue to an apparently wider area in Orton as residents are having to put up with late night noise from the car cruising now in Northgate, Southgate, Wistow and Goldhay.

“There seems to be something particularly appealing about the layout of these roads to the car cruising community.

"Local councillors have been reporting residents concerns to the police and are keen to speak to the car cruising community about how we can move forward to resolve this issue.”

PC Ben Warner from Cambridgeshire Police said: “We are aware of a static car event taking place in Peterborough this weekend.

“There is a multi-agency approach regarding enforcement of any car meet related anti-social behaviour or criminality.

“As with any event, we would encourage people to report issues to us. If a crime is taking place call 999. Otherwise call 101 or report to us online www.cambs.police.uk/report”