City 'held to ransom' by boy racers, small community fed up

Tuesday, 28 June 2016

Evidence of aggressive driving on Summit Rd in Christchurch's Port Hills.

Residents of a small, harbourside community say they suffer sleepless nights and frequent near-misses due to boy racers invading the area on weekends.

The roads in Governors Bay, near Christchurch, are scarred with rubber marks and oil stains, evidence of so-called boy racers who strike at night.

Boy racers pulled over for speeding in Christchurch in 2014.

Police say they can only do so much in a city being 'held to ransom' by such drivers.

For several years, residents of the Banks Peninsula community have reported problems with boy racers motoring along the steep, windy roads on weekends.

Governors Bay resident Rosie Belton wants a solution to the boy racer problem.

* Boy racers: Cruising in Christchurch

* Christchurch is NZ's boy racer capital**

A public meeting one year ago attracted 70 people, and ended with police agreeing to step up efforts to address the issue.

For several months it subsided.

But at a meeting on Monday night, residents said nothing had changed and voiced frustration with the ongoing problem.

'It did not result in any tangible change for us. Still no cameras, no signage, no road calming, no speed zone changes,' said resident Rosie Belton.

'Isn't it such a sad thing that we are being held to ransom by young people using our public roadways for private use?'

Do you have a problem with boy racers in your neighbourhood? Email reporters@press.co.nz

Some locals, woken by the roar of engines, said they phoned the police several times a night. In most cases they couldn't give the police enough information to follow up.

Others had reported harassment from the racers, including bottle-throwing. Cars drove on both sides of the road at high speeds, making noises which echoed through the hills and across the harbour.

Sergeant Gary Hancock, head of the police anti-social road user squad, said police acknowledged residents' concerns but the problem was widespread throughout Canterbury.

'We have a city full of boy racers.

'If we come over here, we need a massive team to get very low results. It's not practical to spend that much policing time for that little gain when we have a city in crisis, being held to ransom by boy racers.'

Following last year's meeting in Governors Bay, police undertook a four-night operation in the area to catch speeding motorists.

They caught 25 people – 24 of them locals and none of them boy racers. Other operations in the area had failed to find boy racers in great numbers.

Hancock said that by focusing on boy racers in Christchurch, they had a better chance of taking cars off the road for good, which would improve the situation in Governors Bay.

'The reason why they create so much disharmony over here is the same reason it's impossible to police them – the ground is so windy, it's hilly, there's lots of acceleration.

'We cannot be everywhere and we cannot do everything at once . . . They are causing just as much harm over there [in Christchurch] as they are here, and they're more likely to kill themselves with what they're doing.'

He said of the 1800 complaints about boy racers last year, 82 came from the area around Governors Bay.

A working group led by residents was set up which would explore possible solutions to the problem.

They include cameras or a community patrol, funded by residents.

City councillor Andrew Turner said he worried that parts of the issue could not be solved, and that he himself had felt intimidated by reckless motorists.

'As a law-abiding citizen, I want to live in a world where I don't need to feel these things.

'What I'm hearing from residents of Governors Bay is that they don't want to live in a world where they're intimidated and fearful of their safety for going about their normal, lawful business.'

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