Peterborough councillor calls for city-wide injunction to eradicate anti-social car cruising
A Peterborough councillor has called for a city-wide injunction to be put in place to eradicate anti-social car cruising events.
Peterborough City Council implemented a public space protection order (PSPO) at Pleasure Fair Meadow Car Park on July 19 to tackle vehicle-related anti-social behaviour.
On its first day of enforcement, Cambridgeshire Constabulary handed out nine tickets to people breaching the court order.
Leader of the Liberal Democrat group, Cllr Christian Hogg, represents the Fletton and Stanground ward where the car park is located and was also part of a task and finish group set up in late 2020 which examined issues relating to car cruising in Peterborough.
At a full council meeting on July 23, Cllr Hogg said that the PSPO would only provide a temporary solution and called for a city-wide injunction to be put in place.
“Pleasure Fair Meadow Car Park acts as a magnet to bring these vehicles into town from all over,” he said.
“This was never going to be the solution. This was more temporary to try and ease the amount that comes into the city. The actual solution is this city-wide injunction.
“What I want to know is, how long is it going to take for the injunction to come into fruition? I fear that I will not live to see its inception.”
A city-wide injunction would give police and the council extra powers to deal with dangerous driving and anti-social behaviour across the whole of Peterborough.
A report from the task and finish group published in 2022 recommended an injunction as a solution and noted that the council would need to be the lead applicant to apply for it, which would be estimated to cost £30,000 to £50,000.
Cllr Alison Jones, Labour cabinet member for communities, responded: “In terms of the city-wide injunction, I will obviously get details for you on that.
“However, what we are aware of is that when we remove it from one place, it might move to another and so we are aware of areas around the city that we will now keep a closer view on as well.
“We are also talking to some of the car cruising events people that put that on to try and work with them.”
Speaking previously to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, independent councillor Julie Stevenson, former chair of the task and finish group created to deal with car meets in Peterborough, also backed the idea of an injunction.
She said: “One of the concerns I have is that we don’t want to shift the problem from place to place. Ideally, we need to push the problem out of Peterborough and the way to do that is with an injunction.”
Cllr Stevenson added: “I very much welcome the PSPO but I’m also cautious that it needs to be part of a bigger operation.”
In Peterborough there are currently two other area PSPOs – one in the city centre and one covering the Millfield, New England, Eastfield and Embankment areas.
There are also six PSPOs which are for the gating of alleyways that have previously experienced significant anti-social behaviour which has had a detrimental impact on communities.