Police in Peterborough tell car cruisers: ‘Behave or we may take your car away’

Car cruising in Peterborough has been in the news again over the past few weeks and for all the wrong reasons, it seems.

Residents have spoken out in anger about late night noise and disturbances caused by the cruise through the city centre last month.

Contrary to popular belief, car cruising is not illegal – however, many of the activities associated with the pastime can be, and often cause a great deal of resentment towards the majority of cruisers who do not cause issues in local communities.

However, a minority of those taking part see any event like this as an excuse to let-off steam in an anti-social manner.

Lockdown caused by Covid-19 simply compounded the problem, and now that restrictions are being relaxed, policing of car cruises has been severely criticised.

An event in July, held at Pleasure Fair Meadow Car Park in Oundle Road – even though organised – was attended by many more vehicles than expected, taking the organisers, and the police it seems,  by surprise.

About a dozen Police officers were in attendance, but were hopelessly outnumbered by 100-120 cars, some of which had loud, modified engines and exhausts and took to racing up and down streets near to residential areas late at night.

Residents of Cubitt Way were especially vulnerable as the overflow of vehicles chose to drive down their narrow, residential road that has speed-bumps in place causing noise and disturbance for much of the night.

One resident (who asked to remain anonymous) said: “The Policing of the event was atrocious… it was a warm evening but we had to close our windows because it was so loud.

“There were Police on the street, but they did nothing… there was no social distancing… I called 101 but more than an hour later there was still a steady stream of cars coming down here”.

The event was so popular even ice-cream vans turned up.

The seemingly lenient attitude of the Police is in direct contrast to their policing of similar events a year ago in July and October 2019. Then, two dispersal orders were issued across Peterborough in a bid to reduce car cruising and any related anti-social disorder.

Those orders, granted under s.34 Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, allow PCSOs, backed up by Police Officers, to take action to disperse events of this nature if they are deemed anti-social or dangerous to the public.

And Peterborough has a history of such events going disastrously wrong. On  August 8, 2015, at a car cruise in Orton Southgate, attended by an estimated 300 vehicles, six men and one woman, aged between 17-31, were taken to hospital after a car hit a group of spectators. Five were seriously injured.

Anthony Francis, of Lambeth Walk, Stamford, was attempting to ‘drift’ in his Mercedes when he lost control, ploughing into onlookers. Arrested, he admitted five counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and one count of dangerous driving.

In January 2016, Francis was given an 18-month prison sentence on each count, running concurrently. He was also banned from driving for two years and his car seized.

Just two weeks later at the same site in Orton, Police were forced to break up a three-car racing cruise when screeching tyres were reported, compared to ‘a speedway race’.

Then, in October 2019, Police attended a car cruising event at Pleasure Fair Meadow Car Park arrested one person, punished four other drivers and 10 vehicles were stopped and dispersed.

Three traffic offence reports were issued: driving with no MOT; driving while using a mobile telephone; and lighting offences, while an uninsured Nissan driver with a provisional licence, was later prosecuted.

In June 2017, Cambridgeshire County Council Community Safety Partnership published a report on car cruising and anti-social driving, stating: “Anti-social driving can have a significant impact on local communities. Locally, this has involved residents having to put up with the loud noise of cars driving through the night and revving engines which has proven to be very distressing for residents across different points of the district.

“There is also the threat that dangerous and reckless driving can lead to injury and death for those involved but also nearby members of the public. Anti-social driving is very closely linked to other forms of Anti-social behaviour… such as an increase in litter on sites where perpetrators have been gathering.

“The police already have wide ranging powers to deal with people who use their vehicles in an anti-social manner.  Apart from prosecuting offenders for motoring offences that could lead to being disqualified from driving, the police can also rely on a power to seize motor vehicles using s.59 Police Reform Act 2002.

“This law applies to vehicles driven carelessly or without reasonable consideration on roads - and that includes car parks and other public areas - in a manner likely to cause alarm, distress or annoyance to members of the public. The use of a s.59 is heavily reliant of an officer catching an individual or group offending. To effectively tackle this type of anti-social behaviour, a multi-agency response is required.”

With all of these powers in place, the question of why  Police appeared to be caught out by the sheer numbers of cars attending the cruise in July 2020, and why their attitude towards them was so lenient in comparison with just a year earlier has been raised by residents.

Cambridgeshire Constabulary Chief Inspector, Nick Church is no stranger to dealing with car cruising and its associated anti-social behaviour and aaddressed  Peterborough City Council’s  Adults & Communities Scrutiny Committee on the issue as far back as 2018.

Ch Insp Church explained the July 2020 policing policy being adopted by Cpolice in Peterborough.

He said: “The event posed a larger than expected issue due to the number of attendees, we were aware it was taking place and had been monitoring it in the run up to it.

“Social media went into overdrive, and the next thing the organisers had cars turning up from every direction, and they simply couldn’t cope.

“We’d allocated six officers to police the event which, under normal circumstances would’ve been more than enough. But these weren’t normal circumstances, and following the recently relaxed lockdown and social distancing rules, everybody took the opportunity to go out on a warm summer’s evening in their car.

“We put a dispersal order in place in response to the emerging anti-social behaviour, and at this point the attendees began to leave voluntarily. We do have a number of powers that we can seek to use appropriate to the circumstances; but in these cases, there simply are no mechanisms to put a blanket stop on the event.

“This doesn’t mean that I’m in any way dismissive of the concerns of residents in the affected areas. We need their help and support to effectively police events like this so if there is anti-social behaviour they should call ‘101’ and report it.

“They can also use our website and our social media all of which feeds directly into our ‘demand hub’ so that officers can be allocated to attend.

“That said, like in any large group at car cruises, there are those who act responsibly and we will be proportionate in our approach, not treating everyone the same just because they are present.

“However, for the minority who feel it is simply an excuse for anti-social behaviour then understand this – we have powers that we will use if required”.

More car cruises are expected in Peterborough before the end of this summer. many of them will be organised and may pass off without incident. For the few that do not, the message from the Cambridgeshire Constabulary is clear and simple

“Be responsible and considerate, if you do not, then we can use powers to take your car away from you.”


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