A THREE-YEAR-OLD is one of the Wokingham residents suffering from anti-social car meets.
Theo was one of many residents and councillors who gathered outside Carnival Pool Multi-Storey car park on Saturday to express their anger at the late-night gatherings of petrolheads.
A counter demonstration took place at the same time as drivers gathered on the upper levels of the car park to show a strength of feeling about the need to drive on.
In recent weeks, cars have swamped into Wokingham town centre late at night, gathering in car parks, revving engines, causing their exhausts to noisily backfire and also drive through the streets.
Poor Theo is, like many others, is struggling to sleep. And being just three, a growing lad needs his rest.
He said that the car meets makes him sad, and he feels the need to get his parents to stay with him overnight.
“I want it to stop,” he told Wokingham Today of the car meets.
Other residents also shared their concerns over the meets, saying that the noise could be heard from quite a distance away.
Maria Gee, Lib Dem councillor for Wescott ward, helped organise the protest and said she was pleased with the turnout.
“It’s been really good,” she said, our interview interrupted by the revving of engines from several stories up.
“The car meets people’s noise shows up the problem that local residents have been having over the past two years.”
READ MORE: Police to attend anti-car meets protest in Wokingham as drivers expected to stage counter protest
She called for a long-term solution to be found.
“The first solution for my residents is to stop this happening here,” she said. “Other people can enter into negotiations with the people who turn up at this car park and find somewhere else for them.
“I can’t do that. I don’t know where it could be, but I do think they should engage with the council, engage with the police, and perhaps find somewhere to go as long as they behave, and not in a dangerous manner.
“There have been care meets where people have been killed or seriously injured… they have to understand the effect on themselves as well as the effects on people around here.”
Cllr Gee called for the police to do more, but understood their limitations.
“I appreciate the police turning up, they are responding within their resources, and those resources have been cut back,” she said. “I have sympathy that they can’t keep on turning up every time this happens in the middle of Wokingham.
“What we need is prevention: a solution to prevent this happening so that we don’t waste resources from the council, and from the police dealing with these incidents all the time.”
The police said in a statement before the protests that they have been taking action against anti-social drivers, using Section 59 of the Police Reform Act to hand out Community Protection Notices.
“Action against irresponsible, and antisocial drivers will continue to be taken,” the force said in a statement, citing that last week they moved on a car meet from Thames Valley Park in Earley, and also a second location in Reading.
They handed out 20 warnings to drivers, and seized a car as the driver had previously received a Section 59 warning for anti-social driving.
“We would like to remind all drivers attending these events that we will be issuing tickets, and when appropriate, vehicles will be seized. Please think before you decide to drive anti-socially or dangerously and the potential consequences you may incur,” the statement added.
The petrolheads feel they are being unfairly singled out and if appropriate spaces were provided they would use one.
None of the drivers we spoke to wanted to be named, and many attending declined to be photographed.
One young driver attended the protest after travelling from Kent, with two female friends.
The 21-year-old said: “If there was a place where everyone could go to show off their cars free of charge, or if they said can you pay £5, and you’re not gonna have any bother from the police or the locals, I’m pretty sure every single person will be happy to pay, just to go somewhere, whether it’s a massive closed-off car park, or an industrial park that isn’t being used.
“Everyone will be fine with that. Happy days.”
He added that while he understood the frustrations of residents, there had only been sporadic meets.
“It’s not every weekend at this one,” he said. “It does get spread around quite a lot. It’s not causing too much distress, that’s the thing, it’s just noise at the end of day.”
He said that he came up from Kent as the car meets were “pretty good down this way”.
And the car meets were a community, he felt.
“Everyone sort of respects each other. Like, there’s no sort of damage to property occurring, It’s not like people come here and sort of graffiti the walls, or smashing windows. That doesn’t happen at the car meets,” he said.
“The people at the car meets means you’re keeping them away from crime. If you said to me all the people here would be dealing drugs on the streets, what would you rather have – you’d rather lose a bit of sleep on a Saturday night, rather than have, say, 50-60 people dealing drugs on the streets, or knife crime.
“This is better in that perspective, you know what I mean?”
One of the organisers of the car meets protest was a teenager who enjoyed taking pictures of the cars, and said that he attended as “they’re my passion”.
As for turning up today, he said: “Some meets aren’t as extreme as this one. This one is more politically driven.
“It felt like some people were taking this as a personal attack for there to be protests (against the meetings). Most of the time our meets are mostly chillax in a car park, talking to other people with the same interests. It’s a social gathering basically.”
He added that it was hard to find others with the same interests unless he went to a car meet.
“It’s hard to explain if you’re not into cars, but there’s a lot to do with the aesthetic of them, which people quite like looking at. It’s like when people go and see arts.”
Like the Kentish driver, the young photographer wanted somewhere safe to meet.
“Special facilities for this kind of thing would be perfect,” he added.
And a pair of Wokingham teenagers, both 18 and driving for just over a year, came down to see what was happening.
The first described themselves as neutrals. “I can see why people don’t like it, but I think they give the car meets a bad name. They say it’s terrifying and scary, but I don’t know how it can be.
“They’re just parked up in a car park.”
But, he acknowledged, the meetings were late at night, when people were trying to sleep.
“I understand both points,” he added. “I don’t agree with how they make out to be.”
The pair had been to a couple of car meets, but said that a barrier to entry was the costs, such as insurance. “When you’re young, it’s pricey.
“But car meets gives you something else to do on a Friday or Saturday night. Everyone’s friendly, it’s all good.
“I’ve never been to a car meet and seen a fight. No one’s gonna get hurt.”
Drivers think they’re not causing any harm, but young Theo – and hundreds of other residents – disagree.
