Council threatens Supreme Court action to CLAMP DOWN on illegal car meets in Northampton - FOUR problematic areas in town identified

The council has threatened to clamp down on illegal car meets in Northampton by taking it all the way to The Supreme Court.

West Northants Council’s (WNC) Community Safety and Engagement Partnership (CSP) says it has agreed to apply for an injunction from The Supreme Court to stop illegal car meets across its constituency.

Councillor David Smith, WNC's cabinet member for community safety and engagement, said: “The CSP has agreed to apply for an injunction in respect to car cruising and car meets which will cover all of West Northamptonshire following issues with car meets in DIRFT, Panattoni Park, Moulton Park and Sixfields.

“These injunctions have been successfully applied for by other authorities in various parts of the West Midlands and there are indications that some of those meeting in West Northamptonshire are travelling in from these areas, whilst others are coming up from Milton Keynes having been dispersed by Thames Valley Police.”

WNC says it has put together an ‘injunction bundle’, however this has been delayed due to a pending Supreme Court hearing on the matter of injunctions against persons unknown.

Mr Smith said: “The council will reassess the situation once the court has reached a verdict.

“In the meantime, the CSP will be deploying a mobile CCTV unit to Moulton and would encourage residents to continue to report any incidents. Northants Police are also collecting statements to add to the evidence bundle to demonstrate that the matter is ongoing once it reaches court.”

Weekend chaos

Northamptonshire Police issued a dispersal order on Friday (March 17) as 40 cars descended into Sainsbury’s car park in Sixfields and were reportedly ‘revving engines excessively, drifting (performing donuts) and racing’ in the area.

Police explained why the countywide dispersal order was issued. A police spokeswoman said: "Customers at the store felt intimidated by the group, and some asked officers to escort them to their cars.

"We have seen occasions in the past where groups will just move to another area of the county and start again – which is why this order was countywide.

"The order was extended into Saturday (March 18) following attempts to set up car meets at other locations.”

Police confirmed there were no arrests in connection with the order but one vehicle was seized.

The spokeswoman added: “The force message is simply that these events are not welcome within our county, and we will robustly enforce any offences.”

‘Nuisance’

Conservative councillor Nick Sturges-Alex (Upton) said the issue of illegal car meets have caused ‘great nuisance’ to residents in his ward.

The councillor said: “These illegal car meetings first started during lockdown. This caused a great nuisance to residents, particularly those along the eastern side of Upton where the noise of revving engines and screeching tyres was unbearable, particularly during the hot summer when everyone had their windows open. This is clearly unacceptable, and I’ve been liaising with the police since then to address this.

"Since lockdowns ended, the problems appeared to have stopped, but sadly it’s just moved to retail park side. While this is disappointing, it’s reassuring that the police have taken such a positive step to hold those responsible to account. This puts out a strong signal to those involved that this behaviour is not acceptable.”