Fed-up residents call for action over car park yobs (From Gazette Series)

Fed-up residents call for action over car park yobs

RESIDENTS in Dursley have this week spoken out about their misery at anti-social behaviour, which they claim is ruining their lives, in Rackfield car park.

On Tuesday night people who live in and around the centre of Dursley met with Stroud District Council's market and car park officer Sally Venn to discuss the disruptive behaviour they feel they cannot tolerate any longer.

At the meeting residents described how youths and men in their twenties use the long stay car park on Castle Street to race their cars and perform hand-break turns into the early hours of the morning. This behaviour, neighbours to the car park claim, creates extremely loud noises which penetrate even double glazing windows making life, and particularly sleeping, very difficult.

One resident described how he had to move bedrooms.

He said: "The problem is quite bad. It's yobbish and anti-social and we need someone to do something about it. It's got so bad I have had to move bedrooms."

None of the residents affected by the anti-social behaviour wished to be named for fear of retaliation from those causing the problems but all said they wanted the problem brought to the public's attention.

One resident told how he feels desperately let down by local police who he believes have done nothing to tackle the problems.

He told the meeting: "Youths are in that car park until one and two in the morning making a noise. They even shout abuse at me over my fence.

"You phone the police and they do nothing. They keep saying they'll give it more attention but they don't. Everyone knows that Dursley is well known as a race track."

However, Sgt Colin Ford from Dursley Police station said the anti-social behaviour in the car park is being dealt with.

He said: "We have been working in partnership with the district council over this issue and over the past 12 months we have conducted a number of operations around the youths involved.

"We attend the car park on a regular basis either as patrols or following a specific complaint from concerned residents.

"We would encourage anyone to phone us as soon as something happens or while something is happening and if they can they should take down car registration details and car makes.

"To combat this we really do need the support of the community."

All the residents assembled at the meeting on Tuesday night said that youths had been gathering in Rackfield car park for many years but it had been in the last 18 months that things had escalated.

Ms Venn told residents that the council was considering the possibility of placing a barrier in the car park closing it at night. She said, however, that this might take time.

She added: "We have a barrier ready to go in, however, because this would mean changing the car park from a 23 hour to a 12 hour facility it has to go through various organisations."