Claims 'out of control' boy racers terrorising residents in Morpeth

The plea came from county councillor Richard Dodd at a meeting of the Castle Morpeth Local Area Council.

Officers had attended to give an update on policing in the town, but Coun Dodd said they needed to be cracking down on boy racers.

He said: “Whenever I come into Morpeth, the boy racers seem to be everywhere. I’ve never read in the papers about somebody being done for anti-social behaviour.

“I know it’s not frontline stuff but people are scared. It’s out of control.

“You don’t need to go anywhere, you just need to sit and listen because of the exhaust noise. They drive around this town like it’s a Formula 1 track.

“What I see is the same handful of cars. They’re the same people, and it is the same in Ponteland [where he is a councillor]. It’s the same people being all the disturbance.

“I banged on about this five years ago, because the hoteliers and the B & B owners were saying they were getting messages saying it was a lovely place to stay, but guests hadn’t been able to sleep because of the noise.”

Officers replied that they had not received any reports of racers causing problems, and were therefore unable to do anything about it.

Coun Dodd said he would try to get the details of those involved to the officers, “so they could update their intelligence”.

The boy racers usually take to the streets of the town centre at night. They can sometimes be spotted driving at speed around Stanley North Terrace car park, where Next and Pets at Home are located, and rev their engines loudly at junctions and traffic lights.

One Morpeth resident, who lives in Dacre Street, said: “It’s always quite late at night when I hear them – usually after 10pm. Sometimes they do doughnuts [making the car spin in a tight circle], and I regularly hear cars screeching past my house at high speed, music blaring out of their windows.

"I realise police are under-resourced, but I also never see any officers in the town centre at night when this is going on. The racers know they aren’t going to be pulled over.”

Coun David Bawn, county councillor for Morpeth North, said: “We are aware of a few hotspots in Morpeth town centre where there are frequent issues with gatherings of boy racers who loudly rev engines and cause other anti-social behaviour, much to the annoyance of residents. Such gatherings can also be intimidating to local people.

“The local police team are aware of the location of these hotspots and I call on them to deploy the resources to address this issue and make it clear to those individuals that this kind of behaviour is not tolerated or acceptable.”

Coun Alison Byard, Mayor of Morpeth, said: “I am assured by the Morpeth Neighbourhood Policing Team that crime is relatively low in Morpeth, but like everywhere, we suffer from occasional incidents of anti-social behaviour which can be distressing for residents.

“I would encourage residents to support the police by reporting all non-emergency incidents quickly and easily – giving dates, times and descriptions on the text reporting number 07786 200814 or online via https://services.northumbria.police.uk/online-services/tell-us-something

“Incidents are then logged and assist the police in gathering evidence and allocating resources. The town centre is protected by good quality CCTV, installed by Morpeth Town Council.”