A legal bid is being launched to stop more than 1,000 boy racers descending on Southend.
Southend Council is seeking an injunction to prevent the cruisers attending a rally planned for Marine Parade, Southend, on February 9.Oh, really? And...why? What harm do they do?
Isn't it for the police to deal with any infractions of the law?
Sgt Ian Hughes, of Southend police, said: “Essex Police are working closely with Southend Council in order to obtain an injunction preventing the cruise going ahead.
“Police have a number of resources on standby on the day to address the potential volume of vehicles coming to Southend on February 9 if the injunction is successful or not.”Ah. Of course. They are in favour. Surprising? No. Why would it ne?
Southend Council’s Chief Executive, Rob Tinlin said: “We are currently in discussions with Essex Police and exploring all options - including the possibility of seeking an injunction, to tackle the issue of an unauthorised large scale cruiser event anticipated to take place in Southend.”There seems to be quite a double standard here, as is pointed out in the comments:
MISSZC says...
I'm confused....??? Do they do this for the Bank Holiday Motorbike Event? No. Do they do this for the Black Cabs event? No. Can't understand why it's such a problem as local businesses benefit from these events.
FYI it's not just 'BOY' racers, they are actually a fraction of the people that attend these events. It's more car enthusiasts and beleive it or not women and families that attend! SC should embrace it, maybe the few problems there are (no more than at SC approved events) could be prevented by coorperation from local authorities. Just a thought!
From a 'GIRL' car enthusiast.Quite...
9 comments:
An absolutely sad and pathetic decision by both the police and the local authority stifling normal lawful behaviour on flawed if not false 'intel' and the claim of lack of resources......this is where changes to policing are required NOT Winsor, NOT police & crime commissioners BUT a good hard boot up the ACPO arse! Utter disgrace.
Ranter
First they came for the car rally drivers...
Stonyground says:
Whatever happened to "It's a free country", I wonder? Nobody says it now because it's no longer true. The police have just lost a court case over them stopping several coach loads of anti war protesters from going about their lawful protesting business. When I heard that story on the radio, I wondered how much difference it would make. Not much apparently.
Do you think it might be the police's intelligence computer flagging up erroneous keywords?
Modified exhausts & rocker covers
See what I did there?
Anyway, here's hoping the publicity doubles the numbers of cruisers.
They're trying similair tactics to ban the bikers annual Egg Run on Wirral. Throwing up such stock phrases as "lack of sponsors so not enough funding to support the event"...."cost of mounting police operation"... "cost of (and cost of assessing) risks to public safety" etc etc.
All for what boils down to one biker picking up an Easter Egg, hopping on his bike and riding to Arrowe Park Hospital to hand it over at reception to be given to a sick child inside. Well ok, that lone biker is multiplied a couple of hundred times but that's pretty much the gist of it.
With individiual sponsors the bikers raise thousands for charities and the whole event takes, maybe, two or three hours out of anyone's day.
Someone, somewhere has decided it shouldn't oughta be allowed.
As one biker commented (paraphrased) : "The authorities do not get to decide whether the Egg Run goes ahead, WE do."
Heh, quite.
I went to a load of these when I was younger. They were usually on car parks like MFI, in the evening wgen it was shut. Some were on car parks near blackpool beach.
The cops were always heavy handed. If we got there first, hundreds of cops followed. If they found out about the event beforehand, they would block off the area and not let us in.
We got in the local papers once. The cops said in the papers that they were doing everything they could to stop these events. In response, we wrote to the papers and said we were going to do everything we could to keep them going, despite the cops.
I've still got one of those atricles somewhere.
What Ranter said. I have Policed a number of car cruises and bike rallies and while there is always someone that wants to speed, pull a wheelie, or smoke tyres, most attendees just want to socialise and show off their vehicles, on which they have spent thousands of pounds.
Who is behind this? I think an FOI request would be appropriate
Well the latest news seems to be that they are going elsewhere... anywhere but Southend apparently and organised in secret too.
I do hope its Brighton.
"....this is where changes to policing are required NOT Winsor, NOT police & crime commissioners BUT a good hard boot up the ACPO arse! "
Absolutely!
"The police have just lost a court case over them stopping several coach loads of anti war protesters..."
Let's hope they challenge this one too.
"Anyway, here's hoping the publicity doubles the numbers of cruisers."
It'll have to be somewhere else...
"In response, we wrote to the papers and said we were going to do everything we could to keep them going, despite the cops."
Clearly, the Southend ones are pussies compared to your's and Tatty's examples...
*sigh*
"I do hope its Brighton."
Time for an enterprising little seaside town to welcome them (and the money they raise) with open arms?
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