Late at night and early in the morning, an underground network of street racers take to our region’s streets.
They’re highly organised, arranging meetings using a combination of social media platforms, and compete against each other on our dual carriageways and local residential roads - placing innocent lives at risk. Armed with their own lookouts for police patrols and recovery vehicles in case of an accident, the street racers turn our roads into racetracks.
The effect this irresponsible and dangerous activity is having on local communities is profound. Just ask the residents of Kenrick Way in West Bromwich, or those living near Manor Way in Halesowen. Both roads are notoriously targeted by street racers, defying a court order in place covering the whole Black Country to prevent so-called ‘car cruising.’
Racing dangerously close to residential areas, the street racers are risking the lives of bystanders and pedestrians, as well as their own.
Tragically, we have seen the highest price paid for their recklessness just recently. Hearts and families were broken with the news that two teenagers were killed after being hit by a car in Oldbury late last year. This is the true cost of this dangerous phenomenon happening regularly on our streets.
Undeterred by such tragic circumstances, it wasn’t long before the street racers returned to our region’s streets.
Of course, our local police force has been doing what it can to tackle these organised street racing events. In liaising with them over several years, we know that there are officers whose lives are dedicated to stopping this from happening in our region. But it’s almost as if they are fighting with one hand tied behind our back.
As strange as it may seem, taking part in an organised street race on public roads is not illegal. Naturally, there may be many real offences taking place at the same time, such as speeding, driving dangerously, and driving without tax or insurance. But the actual act of going to one of these events with the intention of racing your vehicle against others, putting innocent people in harm’s way in the process, is not even against the law.
The police rely on high court injunctions to ban street racing. Obtained by local authorities, they give the police a tool in their belt by providing them with the power to arrest someone breaking the injunction banning the activity in that local area. However, the actual offence they would be accused of committing is contempt of court, a far cry from something that properly represents the severity of taking part in a dangerous, even deadly, event.
These injunctions are also costly to obtain, and the process to get them can be lengthy. Following the expiration of a previous injunction held by the Black Country in February 2021, protracted legal issues in the courts meant it took until December 2022 for a new injunction to be granted. Even then, it has been granted on an interim basis, with regular court dates to review and extend the injunction having to take place.
During that period of time where the previous injunction lapsed, instances of street racing in our communities soared. People from all over the country came to the West Midlands to take part in their dangerous hobby. Hundreds gathered to take part or watch the racing on the streets. Quite frankly, we became the nation’s capital for ‘car cruising’.
Many reasonable residents, particularly those exposed to street racing on a regular basis, will question why it should take such a lengthy legal process just to allow the police the opportunity to arrest those taking part.
That is also a question we have asked of ministers ourselves. Clearly it is time for a fresh approach, and a new law to ban this from taking place anywhere in the country, not just in places with an injunction. This will save local authorities the time and money it takes to obtain an injunction and give police forces around the country a head start in targeting illegal street racing meetings in their area.
The less time authorities have to spend arguing in court over the terms of an injunction, the more time they have to stop street racing from happening, and stop more people from getting hurt or losing their lives.
But even before a new law could come into effect, there is more than we can do right now.
We need new tactics to locate, identify and punish people actively racing on our streets. The police have a wealth of tools available to them that can increase the number of people arrested for breaking the injunction.
Video surveillance would greatly help the police identify far more participants who can then be targeted with a range of enforcement powers, including arrest for breaking existing injunctions.
Councils can also play their part in driving this from our streets. In Kenrick Way, there have been calls to close lanes overnight when traffic is low, but street racing is rife. By reducing the number of lanes each direction of travel has from two to one, it takes away infrastructure that the street racers rely on and forces them into other areas where the police can focus its resources.
Yet Sandwell Council has dismissed this possibility out of hand numerous times, even going so far as to say that Kenrick Way ‘leads to one of the busiest motorway junctions in the country and cannot be compromised in any way.’ Wilfully ignoring the fact that the only thing compromising these routes late at night or early in the morning is hundreds of vehicles using them for treacherous race meetings.
If this is the level of understanding that some local authorities have of the issues going on within their own area, it is no wonder why the police sometimes feel hamstrung in their ongoing fight against the street racers.
The racers and the organised gangs they are part of have made it clear they have no intention to stop what they’re doing, regardless of whether an injunction is in force or not.
They are going to continue racing, placing people’s lives at risk. Many warned that fatalities were not just a possibility, but a certainty, in the months where street racing was on the rise in our region over the last two years.
It’s now time to take the fight against street racing to the next level. By changing the law, giving the police the tools they need, and ensuring local authorities play their part in making local roads safe again. This is how we don’t just drive the racers away but stop them altogether.
Nicola Richards, MP for West Bromwich East, and James Morris, MP for Halesowen & Rowley Regis