Residents unhappy about cars meeting at Stratford Park and Ride but organisers say they are playing by the rules - The Stratford Observer

Residents unhappy about cars meeting at Stratford Park and Ride but organisers say they are playing by the rules

Stratford Editorial 24th Feb, 2017   0

A ROW is revving over gatherings of car enthusiasts in Stratford.

Residents living near Stratford Park and Ride at Bishopton say they have been plagued by noise from some 300 cars at the site on Sunday evenings for the past five weeks.

But Warwickshire-based All Mods – a group for so-called ‘modified’ car fans, who like to to improve performance or style of cars – say the meetings are properly organised with a police presence.

A resident living on nearby Badgers Way told The Observer: “If they want to meet like that they should hold a proper event during the day, not in the evening when people are putting their children to bed or going to bed themselves. There are some people who have to get up at 4am for work.




“Our windows rattle and you can’t hold a conversation over the noise that many cars makes.

“They may hold these meetings by the book but after the event has dispersed and the police leave there are those who speed along Bishopton Lane, up to the A46 and make more noise. It’s only a matter of time before someone gets hurt.


“It is also encouraging unofficial meetings – there were 20 cars at the park and ride on Tuesday night revving their engines and speeding around the roads.”

And district ward councillor Robert Vaudry took to social media to let people know he was liasing with the council and police about the meeting.

But All Mods founder Harry Kay said organisers worked hard filling out risk assessments for events, picking up litter after meetings, and encouraging car owners to respect residents, and had a good relationship with the police who were always present at events.

The 21 year-old said: “The police are always aware of what we are doing and when we are meeting.

“Our meeting at the parkway car park finished at 9pm, well before the legal time, and left an hour for the cars to disperse before the 10pm curfew.

“The police are always present at the meets because nothing stops people acting up and ruining it for the rest of us like a marked police car. And there was nothing for them to do on Sunday night because no one at the meet was doing anything illegal.

“I’m from Stratford and plenty of people who attend are also local. We don’t want to upset people in the town because lots of us live and work there.

“We try really hard to be courteous to locals so it is frustrating when people say we’re a nuisance. What would they rather us do? Going to meetings keeps a lot of people from racing around in their cars.”

All Mods have also raised over £5,000 for charity in the last four years. Rather than charging people to attend meetings they give a voluntary donation.

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