RESIDENTS who complained about anti-social behaviour marring Fairfield car park at night time have had bottles of urine and fireworks thrown at their homes.

Families living near the area have said the car park is a hotspot for so-called boy racers who spend the nights driving at speed around the area and causing trouble.

One resident said their life had been made a ‘living hell’ after groups of ‘cruisers’ decided to congregate at the car park at night to perform ‘doughnuts’ and other risky driving spectacles.

After complaining about such behaviour, residents have had bottles of urine and fireworks thrown in their gardens. One homeowner alleged that someone had even urinated through their letterbox.

Similar concerns over ‘boy racers’ earlier this year led councillors and police groups to install barriers to stop the groups of cars getting into the car park after dark and wreaking havoc. The measure has had limited success.

Tudor Thomas, local councillor for Priory Ward, says he feels the barrier has been used as a ‘challenge’ for the racers, who drive at high speed toward the steel bollards before braking and turning sharply. Any delay would mean ploughing through it.

“We have a problem there now. The priorities for police in Priory Ward have come up and one of them is the cruisers shooting around in Fairfield at all hours of the night — starting from about seven o’clock,” said Councillor Thomas.

“You can’t be too harsh with them. They’re in their little souped-up Corsas and want to impress their girlfriends or friends, and socialise.

“I don’t think, after talking to the residents, that they are complaining about that. They’ve got no objection if they stay out of the way. They don’t mind.

“What happens later on is they start screaming around the car park, doing doughnuts,” he said.

Local residents, speaking to Councillor Thomas on condition of anonymity, complained that the behaviour of some individuals far exceeded usual teenage angst.

“A couple of things residents have picked up with me. They’ve had bottles of urine thrown in their gardens. One chap had someone urinate through his letter box.

“I said to someone on Saturday whether they would like to be quoted in The Chronicle and they said no because of the reprisals,” said Councillor Thomas.

“According to one resident, you have people coming down on bikes to pick up drugs.

“You have this huge level of disturbance. Obviously, you’ve got people there with young families and the kids can’t sleep, they’re tired in the morning when they get up for school and really it is making their life hell,” he said.

Gwent Police have now marked the area as a priority target, as Councillor Thomas called for a joint effort to stamp out anti-social behaviour.

“What we need there is a concerted action by Gwent Police with marked cars and officers to go and take these people to task and stop the disturbance.

“From the Monmouthshire County Council perspective they’ve really got to look at whether we have got to have a situation where it is locked after certain hours. Even late on, it would stop people getting in there and screaming about,” said Councillor Thomas.

PC Adam Hollings, from Abergavenny Police Station, said action had been taken to quell the spate of antisocial behaviour.

“Fairfield Car Park is a problem for vehicle-related antisocial behaviour at the present time. It’s important to stress that as with most groups of young people, the majority of the car cruisers just like to sit and chat in their cars, but a minority do rev engines excessively and drive in an anti-social manner.

“Just last week  I issued two Section 59 warnings, which is the first stage of a two-stage process. If either the driver or the vehicle get caught acting in an antisocial manner again then their cars will be seized.

“We started the ball rolling yesterday in partnership with Monmouthshire County Council to apply for a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO). This would allow us to prohibit people from doing certain things in the car park to prevent antisocial behaviour. Breaching this will be a criminal offence.

“We will keep people up to date on this through our twitter account which is @gpabergavenny. I would encourage everyone to follow us as we tweet most of our daily activities,” he said.

MCC’s head of operations, Roger Hoggins said, “Local county and town council members are particularly concerned about anti-social behaviour in the Fairfield car park.

Councillors, council officers and Gwent Police have investigated how this behaviour might be curtailed. 

“It is intended to close off the main part of the car park at nights and barriers have been installed to achieve this. Problems have been incurred with the moveable bollards so a vehicle barrier has been ordered to close off the main car park.”