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Norwich boy racers who plagued Britannia Road face city ban
It comes after a three-month overnight police closure of Britannia Road car park in Mousehold Heath, between 9pm and 5am, reduced anti-social driving but was not renewed when it expired last month.
Elsewhere yobbish drivers have been seen doing doughnuts in the St Saviour’s Lane car park just off Magdalen Street and drifting around Sprowston Retail Park before more than 100 drivers went on a rampage through the city centre.
County councillors will vote early next month on a city-wide Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) to come in on Friday, July 21, allowing police to outlaw specific actions of anti-social behaviour at will, effectively banning thuggish drivers from the roads of Norwich.
It comes after Norfolk County Council installed a speed camera close to the car park in Britannia Road.
The move was welcomed by Andy Sharpe, who lives near the car park and has been campaigning for action on boy racers for about 15 years.
He said: “I think this is a positive approach. It’ll be great to have something covering the whole city and hopefully it can be rolled out across the county.
“I think it’ll be successful because it has never just been about the car park. When they were banned from that, they just started gathering on the verges creating a logjam.
“They’ve also moved on elsewhere, my son was nearly run over at the Broadland Business Park on his way to judo and my neighbour was almost knocked off his bicycle.
“It’s really threatening the way they behave and it’s been going on for decades.
“It annoys me because it’s such an obvious issue. They’re happy to catch pensioners doing 33mph in a 30mph zone but they can’t stop this lot.
“They’re like robbers in stripey shirts going into a bank – they couldn’t be more blatant.”
Bowthorpe Labour county councillor Mike Sands, who has previously campaigned against issues in his area, is also backing the move.
He said: “For the first three months we had the car park closure we pretty much stopped them.
“Police asked for another closure but the magistrate wouldn’t give them it as there wasn’t enough evidence. But obviously, they weren’t there because the car park was closed.
“But this should allow us to deal with Britannia Road and the rest of the city and it really is needed.
“They obviously got irate when we closed the car park and went on that rampage through the city, but they soon got tired. We’ll put a stop to it.
“If they were enjoying themselves quietly we wouldn’t mind, but it seems like there’s a hardcore element who are intent on being a nuisance.”
Norwich North MP Chloe Smith, who recently chaired a meeting with police along with county and city councillors to thwart the boy racers, has promised the measures will be introduced in time for the school holidays.
She said: “Residents on Britannia Road have put up with noise and dangerous behaviour for too long, so I’ve acted to support constituents by holding the local authorities and police to account.
“I welcome the idea of a city-wide Public Spaces Protection Order and have secured a promise that it can be in place before school is out for summer, when more children may be on the pavements and when long-suffering families deserve a break.
“I will continue to work with the police to review whether similar measures might be needed across even more of the built-up area, as of course some reckless people involved might just take it elsewhere and cause fresh problems for other residents.”
