'Mobile MOT centre' set to target boy-racers

The PSNI has outlined details of a plan to bring a special MOT Centre mobile testing ramp to the harbour area of Ballycastle which has been blighted by anti-social driving over the years.

The special Roads Service ramp would mean on-the-spot checks could be made of vehicles with lowered suspension and tinted windows and the like to see if they are road legal.

Details were revealed by Inspector Bryan Hume of Ballycastle PSNI at a District Policing Partnership meeting in the town.

At the meeting a member of the public said residents are fed up with the lack of action against anti-social driving, which he said can go on to 5am some days.

He said an MOT and police swoop is needed.

He said clamping down on illegal vehicles would make it “uncomfortable” for boy racers

Inspector Hume said they have already spoken with MOT centre officials and they are to carry out a joint operation but there was a health and safety issue which needed ironed out.

The inspector said a similar scheme was carried out in the past in Ballymena and he said it will happen soon.

The member of the public said police need to put as much effort into tackling the boy-racers at the seafront as they do trying to catch speeders at the 30mph approach at the top of the town in Ballycastle.

The man said the harbour area is “nearly a no-go area” with the boy-racers and he said some girl drivers are as bad.

He told senior police officers at the meeting: “To be quite honest they are making a laughing stock of yous” and he accused the police of “failing the public.”

Inspector Hume said they do stop drivers regularly and people have been taken to court and have had licences taken off them.

Police said the problem is that new young drivers keep coming along every year.

Sergeant David Armour said anti-social driving like ‘diffing’ or ‘doughnutting’ is not just confined to the Ballycastle area and he said anyone witnessing such driving should contact police.

Details were given of ramps and flower-beds which are to be put in at the harbour to slow traffic down and to minimise the space available for would-be ‘doughnutters’.

Aiden McPeake of Moyle Council said that at one stage they had looked at the possibility of closing off the harbour area at night and another option was making it a pay carpark but those options were ruled out in favour of putting in ramps and there will be CCTV footage

A woman member of the public said the ramps are in the wrong place and said they are needed on the Bayview Road. The meeting heard the whole road is not owned by the Council but they are keen to get Roads Service to put in ramps on their section of the road.

Another member of the public said: “There is more rubber in the carpark than there is in Michelin”.

At the meeting it was further claimed by another man that a popular ‘boy-racer’ spot is at Portaneevey car park between Ballycastle and Ballintoy.