Cars confiscated as boy racers targeted

“I agree with you daveb0360, the mods probably make the car slower unless they really know what they are doing. Sounding as if you are going fast is probably more important than the actual speed. If they saved the money they spend trying to turn the pig's ear Corsa into a silk purse, they could probably afford a proper (quieter) sports car.”

“@llamalamb. Are you sure you are annoyed by people who keep chickens? They tend to make very little noise. I think maybe you are referring to cockerels - now that is another matter altogether..”

“@llamalamb. Ok, speed isn't the major issue........although, clearly, speed kills! And yes, I have forgotten to include motorcyclists who have been equally troublesome for years. Most of their antics aren't due to their speed. It stems from the extreme noise they make even when not speeding. I had one of these modded BMW's opposite me for over 3 years and it rattled my windows and disrupted whatever I was trying to do when it was simply idling on their drive!
These cars are modified firstly, to make noise! Most of them are not even any faster than the original, type approved vehicles that they once were, FACT.

The age of the drivers isn't the issue, I too, have seen older, more mature drivers causing as much nuisance as they feel they want to with their modded exhausts. Clearly, they have no sense of responsibility to their communities or respect for fellow residents and probably exercise their selfishness in every aspect of their lives also.

As far as Police being directed to tackle more serious crimes as a priority.......no argument. Of course this should always be the case. Nobody is suggesting that tackling these yobs should be prioritised. Just that it should form part of a police officer's daily enforcement protocol and not just subject to occasional 'operations' when enough of the public shout loudly enough!

I have, on many occasions, phoned Police to try and curb the activity, particularly when it's impossible to sleep or concentrate on daily life. When I call, if I am told that this is a low priority and there are no officers free to deal with it, I accept that unreservedly! What RILES us, is when (9 out of 10 times) officers are available and DO turn out, they drive through the troubles all smiles, doffing their caps and drive off again......I have witnessed this on every occasion first hand !

On the last occasion, I called in, a woman police officer was sat in her marked car outside Maccies while several of these cars were revving, wheel spinning, blasting music and speeding out of the car park in noisy convoys. She clearly was not interested in dealing with the issue and shortly after, drove off like nothing was worth the effort.

And yes ! I do feel they should tackle the errant cyclists and every other low level annoying crimes whenever they can.

It's about upholding the laws of the land and acting on the legislation available to enforce the laws.......all laws! not those that the chiefs select as worthy because of the positive PR. Police are not and never have been in force to be popular, they are there to uphold the law in order to ensure that the society that we all live in, is a balanced one, one that suits the majority. Unfortunately, minorities such as these people, are getting the lions share of the pandering and the rest of society are being pressed to raise their tolerance to cope. Ofen to unacceptable levels.

It sounds as though I am anti police......very far from truth, I am highly pro police! I simply feel that policing policy is abysmally targeted towards the 'glory', points winning aspects to the detriment of overall policing good practice.

Another point, if you sufficiently subdue the lower level crimes, the more serious criminals and criminality are more visible, more obvious. Resulting in an easier overall task in preventing and detecting more serious crimes. This will lead to more cost effective service and greater public confidence. This will have even more impact on the younger offenders who have grown up with an attitude of free-for-all in an overly liberal country with regard to the law.

Now that can't, surely, be a bad thing!?”

“Blimey.....I've got red arrows.

Do the posters here not support the police to use their resources to fight crime then?

Says a lot about society today.”

“Blimey.....I've got a lot of red arrows.

The shocking thing is that the posters here don't want the police to use their resources to fight crime. Says a lot about society today!”

“Another thing, why does no one complain if they see a 2009 seat leon cupra with a centre exit exhaust popping and banging through the gears, bouncing down the road on solid suspension, driven by a 50 year old in a suit? 30 years back, he was classed as a boy racer”

“racing around the town? melton mowbray! at best , you might get a chance to grab 2nd gear before the next set of lights. maybe the next playstation racing game could include melton circuit, with a choice of the vauxhall corsa, honda civic, ford focus, and the vw polo?”

“Daveb0360

You obviously feel strongly about this, you seem however to have forgotten to complain about the motorcyclists!

I have problems with:

Farmers
Clay pigeon shooters
The local football club (both matches & noisy parties / weddings at night)
East Midlands Airport
People who keep chickens

All of which cause a noise nuisance.

To be honest though, I would sooner the police use their meagre resources to fight crime.”

“Aren't all us commentors forgetting something........aside from the extreme speed and anti-social driving styles, every one of these irresponsible louts live in a street, with neighbours who also have to put up with the abusive racket. In the context of so called 'car cruises', every attendee has to travel down one or more residential street or road to get to their venue; streets with elderly, infirm, babies and people who deserve to be able to sleep.

When these yobs get their little cars, the first thought they seem to have is 'let's see how much noise I can make with it' they then proceed to attach as big a bean tin onto the tailpipe as they can and scream off down all our streets laughing at the reaction from the 'normal' residents...the more the noise, the louder they laugh.

Another thing we are all overlooking is that the Police are doing nothing without large numbers of complaints!
Once upon a time, I was worried if my exhaust had so much as a crack in it or a hole because it would attract the nearest officer to the noise and I would risk a fine or worse. Nowadays, Police are ignoring the issue.

Police are using section 59 legislation that is so limited and only targets specific areas where reports are in large enough numbers to warrant action. Even then, the steps taken are short lived and minimal.

The Police should be using the Vehicle Construction & Use Act which gives powers to act on any vehicle, in any location if it is modified or driven so as cause nuisance. No specific proof or test is necessary.

Most, if not all of these cars and drivers can be targeted for prosecution for a long list of offences such as : - Illegal off-road lights, Illegal tints, illegal removal of catalytic convertors, exhausts modified in such a way as to cause noise nuisance, illegal or no registration plates, driving in anti-social manner (sect59), inappropriate insurance,...etc..etc.

The major question to be asked is WHY ARE POLICE IGNORING THE ISSUE.
They will tell you it's a limitation of their budget and/or resources. This is simply bull........we have a massively increased budget and resources of manpower than there ever used to be and Police would crack down and pull over people with noisy exhausts years ago. No, it's lack of commitment and a methodology in the higher ranks and PR gains made by targeting the 'glorifying' tasks that are the cause.
I am willing to bet that if the higher ranks would dictate to the officers on the streets that whenever they are not on immediate requirement, they pull any cars with noisy exhausts etc. At a rate of 1 a week per officer, they would wipe out the problem in months without any budgetary impact whatsoever.

The other issue is us.....the public, not complaining enough. Policing has become like the fire and ambulance service, reactive. There is little proactive policing any more. Officers are dissuaded by their superiors and governments from tackling lesser crimes for fear of damaging PR; they are too keen to be seen as our friends. The only time they react to this nuisance is when figure on a spreadsheet reach a 'trigger' level, when numbers of calls reach a level where they have to react for fear of public outcry and the impending complaints and negative PR. It's a scandalous way to run a public service frankly!

There are officers, such as our beat team that care and want to tackle it but they are hamstrung by their superiors and a policing policy that is entirely stupid.

In my own short street, there isn't an evening goes by where we can't have a conversation, make a phone call or watch the TV, let alone try to sleep, without the intermittent nuisance of scumbags driving their noise machines past our window and in an ever more stressful existence, this does not help one bit.

Why should we raise our already stretched tolerance levels to accept this behaviour when there are laws to prevent it? and it's a nationwide problem that is growing fast.

It's time we lobbied for big changes!”

“Can the Police also confiscate bicycles off of folk who ride around without lights please............

Flaming fed up with them....

No Lights - No Cycling!

Now that would be a good campaign...”