County-wide dispersal order ahead of planned car meet

A dispersal order covering the whole of Cambridgeshire will be in place this weekend in response to a planned car meet.

The measure has been taken by the force following information about the event due to take place in Peterborough on Saturday evening (21 October), as well as recent events of car meets and anti-social driving.

The order, which will be in place from 6pm this evening (Friday) to 7am on Sunday (22 October), has been granted under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 and allows police officers to direct a person to leave the area specified within the order if there are reasonable grounds to suspect their behaviour has contributed or is likely to contribute to members of the public feeling harassed, alarmed or distressed, or the occurrence of crime or disorder.

Failure to comply with the order can result in arrest.

Sergeant Connor Hall, from Peterborough’s southern Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “Car meets and associated anti-social behaviour has been a problem across the sector for some time, which is why it has been set as a priority for my team to tackle.

“Although often perceived and intended to be a good-natured event for car enthusiasts, these events have a history of becoming anti-social and cause the local community misery due to behaviour such as excessive noise with revving of engines and loud music, as well as reckless and dangerous driving, littering, and causing damage to road surfaces.

“We have been in contact with the event organiser who has been issued a Community Protection Warning (CPW) to cancel the event, which we believe it has, however the order will be in place as a further preventative measure.

“We will also have extra patrols in place across the known hotspot locations for these meets over the weekend to enforce the dispersal order.”

Anti-social driving can be reported to us via our web chat service or online forms at www.cambs.police.uk/report. Anyone without internet access should call 101.

Always dial 999 in an emergency where someone is in immediate danger, or a crime is in action.