Wokingham: Nuisance car meet drivers could be fined £1,000

Residents have protested against the car meets that have featured 'engine revving, wheel spinning' and 'aggressive driving'

Nuisance drivers participating in meets in a town's car parks could be fined up to £1,000.

Wokingham Borough Council has passed a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO), which it says aims to reduce "anti-social behaviour vehicle use".

Between January 2021 and January 2022, the council said, 82 incidents were reported.

At a protest this year it was claimed children had been hiding under beds due to noise related to the activity.

"Typically, it features engine revving, wheel spinning, aggressive driving, noise from horns, backfiring and loud music," said Ian Shenton, the authority's executive member for environment, sport and leisure.

"A lot of it occurs quite late into the night," he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

He said the order was "necessary" due to the "volume of complaints" from residents. 

The behaviour was deemed to meet the threshold for issuing a PSPO as the "number and regularity" of incidents had had a "detrimental effect on the quality of life" for residents in the vicinity.

Car enthusiasts said the vast majority of those at meets simply wanted to show off modifications to their vehicles

The order gives officers new powers to hand out fixed penalty notices (PCNs) of up to £100, or a summary offence fine of up to £1,000, to those who fail to comply with conditions. 

Signage totalling £2,000 will be installed in the areas so the order can be legally enforced.  

The council said cases had reduced following the installation of CCTV in some parts of Wokingham.

Wokingham Borough Council said it installed CCTV at Carnival Pool car park last summer

Public consultation by the council on the PSPO, carried out between June and July of this year, revealed that 75 per cent of respondents were in favour of implementing it. 

The order was approved unanimously by the council at the meeting of the executive on 29 September.