Racing ahead with car ban
STOKE-ON-TRENT City Council has joined forces with another local authority in its bid to ban boy racers from the city.
The city council and Staffordshire Police have been working together on an application for an injunction against "car cruisers" for more than 12 months.
Council lawyers are hoping to lodge the application with the High Court soon. They have been in talks with officials at Warwickshire County Council, which is hoping to secure a similar injunction, and the two authorities have decided they have more chance of success if they apply simultaneously.
Plans for the injunction were launched following years of complaints from residents and businesses on Festival Park about noise, litter and disruption caused by boy racers congregating there.
The city council decided to apply for a city-wide injunction following the success of a similar ban in Nottinghamshire, which banned 'drivers and passengers of five or more motor vehicles congregating together or driving in convoy or racing each other upon the highway so as by their conduct to make excessive noise, cause danger to other road users or risk of injury to any person or risk of damage to property'.
Anyone caught breaching the injunction could be charged.
A report prepared for the authority's now defunct Executive and Members Board details how the city council and the Warwickshire authority are planning to act together.
It said: "It is considered prudent for both authorities to apply (albeit separately) at the same time to the High Court for two injunctions to restrain the car cruisers in their respective areas.
"The benefit of this would be that the court would be hearing from two authorities who are experiencing the same problems and are both of the view that in these types of cases the circumstances are exceptional."
The city council is pressing ahead with the application despite fears the authority could have to shell out £50,000 if the injunction was successfully challenged.
A similar civil injunction brought by Birmingham City Council against a gang member was overruled at the Court of Appeal last year.
But the council says every effort is being made to make sure the application is watertight against legal challenge.
A city council spokesman added: "This is taking some time because we have been seeking legal advice to make sure the loopholes are closed.
"We are optimistic that we will be making an application in the very near future. We are in the final stages of pulling the case papers together."
Christine Brain, secretary of Etruria Residents' Association, pictured below, said: "For the people who live near Festival Park the injunction can't come soon enough.
"The problems are especially bad at this time of year because people want to be outside but have to suffer the noise.
"The application has been a long time coming but we don't mind waiting – we would rather the injunction is effective and doesn't have any loopholes."
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