Latest news with #revving
Daily Mail
14 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Drivers could be fined £100 for revving their engines in affluent London enclave by Labour-run council
Drivers could be fined £100 by a Labour-run council for revving their engines in an affluent London enclave. Westminster City Council is planning to clamp down on 'sudden and/or rapid acceleration' in Soho and Mayfair between the hours of 12pm and 6am and could use 'acoustic enforcement cameras' to catch culprits. The local authority is seeking to extend its Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) which currently covers most of St James's, Knightsbridge and Belgravia, due to concerns over 'a problem with anti-social vehicle use in the West End'. Such issues are believed to be particularly prevalent on Bond Street, near the tourist hotspots of Piccadilly and Oxford Street, with a concern that public safety is being 'undermined' with roads in the area also taking a battering. Just three weeks ago, police were called to New Bond Street in the early hours of the morning after a 'large group of masked individuals' with 30 cars and 20 bikes gathered on the street and attacked a bus with smoke canisters. A report brought forward to extend the current PSPO is now before Cllr Aicha Less, the council's deputy leader, with a final decision to be made on August 20 before being quickly implemented, if approved, next week. Cllr Less previously said: 'If you are looking to meet up with cars like this, our streets are not the place for it.' A person would become in breach of the the order if they are to cause a public nuisance by: A fleet of expensive luxury sport cars were seen in central London ahead of a meet last year Westminster City Council say they have issued 368 fixed penalty notices over the last three years for alleged violations of the order, many for illegal meets on Exhibition Road, South Kensington. Evidence collected by the New West End Company (NWEC) revealed that police had to be called 25 times out of 33 recorded car meets in New Bond Street between April 2023 to June 2025. The NWEC said the average number of vehicles attending the car meets is 63, with the Metropolitan Police deploying a vehicle to the area on 14 occasions during that timeframe. An extract from the council report reads: 'The impact of this behaviour is a growing concern for the public, local businesses, and the Council. 'Tyre burnouts leave lasting skid marks on road surfaces, contributing to the visual deterioration of a high-profile retail area and necessitating more frequent resurfacing at a cost to the Council and its partners. 'Additionally, evidence gathered by NWEC indicates that anti-social vehicle use is disrupting retail security systems, triggering false alarms and leading to the unnecessary deployment of costly resources such as security fog systems, which are activated by the loud disturbances.' The acoustic cameras, which would be used to catch breaches of the order if the proposals are approved, are activated when they detect events over 80-90 decibels - which is as loud as standing next to a passing London Underground train. The camera then uses AI to differentiate an engine's sound from a typical car horn by monitoring the sound patterns. Cllr Max Sullivan, the council's cabinet minister for streets, pledged that the council would take a 'zero-tolerance approach' to such behaviour and labelled dangerous driving 'a blight on our streets'. He added that they would work with the Met 'to tackle illegal car meets head-on'. Soho Society chairman Tim Lord told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: 'We have had a spate of motorbike racing late at night which appears to be dangerous and is incomprehensibly loud and frightening for visitors, residents and businesses.' The Daily Mail has approached Westminster City Council for comment.
Telegraph
a day ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Drivers could be fined for revving engines in Soho and Mayfair
Drivers in Soho and Mayfair, in central London, could soon be fined for revving their engines under new proposals from the local Labour council. A legal order that bans the revving of car engines, ' sudden and/or rapid acceleration ' and racing could be extended to the two upmarket districts. Westminster city council is proposing to extend its existing Public Spaces (Nuisance Vehicles) Protection Order, which currently covers an area including most of St James's, Knightsbridge and Belgravia. The proposed expansion is largely in response to issues on Bond Street, with motorbikes in Soho also a problem, the London Standard reported. Max Sullivan, Westminster's cabinet member for streets, said the council 'will continue to take a zero-tolerance approach to keeping our communities safe and free to enjoy our city'. Drivers infringing the order, which applies between 12pm and 6am, face a £100 fixed penalty notice. Microphones called 'acoustic enforcement cameras' are set to be installed around the borough. The order covers areas including causing a public nuisance by revving one's engine; suddenly, rapidly or repeatedly accelerating, playing music; using threatening or intimidating behaviour towards others and causing an obstruction on a public highway 'whether moving or stationary' such as driving in a convoy. More power to local councils Although many of the above things are motoring offences in their own right, council workers have no legal power to enforce those laws. Only the police can do so. Westminster city council said it has handed out around 350 fixed penalty notices over the last three years for alleged contraventions of the order. A spokesman added that many of those fines were issued for illegal meets on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, which is also part of the London borough. Public Space Protection Orders were created in 2014 under the Lib Dem-Conservative coalition government. The Local Government Association, the lobbying group for councils and other such public sector bodies, describes them as 'wide-ranging and flexible powers for local authorities, which recognise that councils are often best placed to identify the broad and cumulative impact' of anti-social behaviour.
