Car meets in town need to be 'eradicated'

Essex Police has issued warnings to those attending car meets

Illegal car meets need to be "eradicated" in a town, a councillor has said.

Essex Police has issued warnings to more than 150 vehicles involved in recent meets in Braintree and said it had been cracking down on roads often used for racing, including the A131.

Cabinet member for stronger communities at Braintree District Council, Mary Cunningham, said: "We would like to eradicate it and apparently in some areas it has been eradicated."

She said the council had been looking into methods to stop the meets, including contacting firms at Springwood Industrial Estate to make sure they were locking their parking areas.

Ms Cunningham said: "It is obviously a huge issue and Braintree council have been aware of the issue for some time."

Talking to BBC Essex, she said: "The issue about the actual race meets are being advertised on closed social media platforms, which the police don't have access to.

"So unfortunately, they are already under way before the police are made aware."

Leader of the council, Graham Butland, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service recently: "I live on what I describe as Braintree's answer to Le Mans at the moment."

Other county roads that have seen police action include Roscommon Way on Canvey Island and The Manorway in Corringham.

Officers have issued dispersal orders in the past if they have got intelligence ahead of car meets.

Police said it was cracking down on dangerous driving in the county

Chief constable BJ Harrington said: "We're doing road enforcement and speeding enforcement operations - not just around the road-racing issue but obviously around more dangerous driving, and we bring a number of other prosecutions.

"The more intelligence we have, the more we can do."

He added: "They sometimes accompany car cruises, which is legitimate, but we also do a lot of work to stop those car cruises from becoming, should we say, Formula 1 events."