Police have given an update on an operation to clamp down on anti-social car meets in a Wiltshire town.
At the annual Chippenham town meeting on Wednesday, April 24, Sgt Jamie Ball of the local neighbourhood policing team updated councillors and residents on the force’s priorities in the area.
One issue of concern for locals, raised by the Conservative MP candidate for the constituency Cllr Nic Puntis, was overnight gatherings of vehicles, particularly in the B&Q car park on Bath Road.
Sgt Ball confirmed officers had been working with supermarkets and other businesses to tackle young people in cars “causing nuisance” across the last year.
He said: “If we look at everything online for some of the other towns in our area there were some quite large gatherings and some rowdy anti-social behaviour.
“PC Paul Croft very quickly liaised with all of our larger supermarkets, larger shops, and larger car parks, and we formed a working group whereby we shared information.”
After advice was given to businesses, stores such as B&Q used sandbags to prevent people from driving on the pavement and entering car parks at night.
At the time, he said: “We have listened to residents’ concerns and will be conducting extensive high visibility patrols around the locations which we believe are most affected.
“We know that there are a number of dedicated, law-abiding car enthusiasts in our town who do not cause issues within their community.
“However, there are a small number of individuals who are continuing to meet at various locations late at night and are acting in an anti-social manner, causing criminal damage to some areas and disruption and intimidation to local people.”
Sgt Ball believes the force has managed to avoid large-scale gatherings during the last year as a result.
In the last six months, only one car meet in Chippenham attended by police was large enough to require a dispersal order.
Sgt Ball added: “Touchwood, we’ve been very fortunate in terms of large-scale gatherings and the one occasion last year where we did have one, we issued an immediate dispersal order.
“A lot of the car gatherings seem to be going out of county at the minute.
“They’re going down into the Avon and Somerset area, in and around Bristol, much to their annoyance but much to our satisfaction.
“As a town, we’ve been very fortunate with that, it’s something we’ve worked incredibly hard on.”
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