Council ups ante in boy racer battle

Wednesday, 29 January 2025

Living in the shadow of so-called boy racers - new rules are being proposed to give more powers to police to crack down on anti-social driving in the Northgate Business Park at Horotiu, a hotspot for such activities.

Hope is in sight for residents and businesses trapped in a notorious boy racer zone in Horotiu.

A notorious spot for boy racer activity at a business park in Horotiu is being targeted by Waikato District Council as it looks to join adjoining councils in clamping down on anti-social driving.

The proposals cover roads in the expansive Northgate Business Park, which is right next to the spot where a teenager last year slammed a stolen ute into a police car at a boy racer “invasion” event.

The council proposal, currently out for public consultation, would see five roads in the park facing bans from operating light motor vehicles between 9pm and 4am.

They include sections of Holmes Rd and Kohia Drive, as well as Spence Way, Evolution Drive and Innovation Way.

This ban wouldn’t apply to legitimate business users or the likes of taxis and isn’t intended to affect use by residents.

Rather it’s intended to minimise anti-social or nuisance driving, commonly called “boy-racing”, the council said.

It’s a response to a request from police and recent incidents in the area involving “illegal street racing and nuisance driving and associated behaviours such as littering and property damage”.

Changing the rules would give police more enforcement options to deal with boy racers, the council said.

Fresh skid marks on display on Tuesday in Spence Way, one of the streets targeted by the proposed new rules.

Similar rule changes have been adopted by the Hamilton and Waipā councils.

Resident Ross Mutton, who lives inside the park area, said the rule change was a “great idea” that he would make a supportive submission on. He’s faced ongoing boy racer issues in the seven years he’s lived in the area.

“Something needs to be done,” he said on Tuesday.

“We’ve seen the lot. It’s a huge problem, has been for a long time.

“The noise, and the speed” concerned him with cars going “well and truly over the speed limits”.

“Clowns” in cars had discovered the area and used it often at night and at weekends, as well as during the day sometimes.

Jeff Andersen, general manager of Chocolate Works NZ on Innovation Way, says his night shift workers can feel intimidated by boy racer activity after dark.

“It’s not uncommon at all.”

Mutton said he’d been threatened and verbally abused many times when he’d asked boy racers to move on but hadn’t actually been assaulted.

Jeff Andersen, general manager of Chocolate Works NZ on Innovation Way, also agreed with the council’s plan.

A scrap of tyre left behind in Spence Way - such litter is cited as a problem by one local business.

“If the police have more powers to deal with the problem that’s a good thing.”

Waikato district’s Newscastle-Ngāruawāhia councillor Janet Gibb says the boy racer problem at Northgate has been “massive” and there are other parts of the district which face problems too.

On how his business was affected by the boy racer problem, he said: “We do work night shifts so some of our staff can feel a bit intimidated.”

However, no-one had been threatened or had any crashes with boy racer vehicles.

The only other direct issue was “some of the rubbish left on the streets or outside” his premises, such as broken bottles or bits of shredded tyres after blowouts. That could involve having to clean up debris on Monday mornings, Andersen said.

He urged anyone coming into the area in vehicles to be more considerate of locals.

The Northgate Business Park sits in the ward of Newscastle-Ngāruawāhia councillor Janet Gibb, who said on Tuesday that boy racers had been a big problem in the area in recent years: “It’s been massive actually.”

The proposed rule changes were about giving police legal tools to move people on or prosecute them if warranted.

Waikato district’s mayor Jacqui Church is a big fan of more support for the police to tackle boy racer problems.

Gibb acknowledged the wording of some council material could imply “normal people” could be stopped by police but she stressed the rule change wasn’t aimed at anyone with a legitimate reason to be driving through the area at night.

“This recent bylaw [proposal] has added in some extra teeth and and it’s not meant to be at all to frustrate your legal regular people driving on the road.

“It’s a bylaw so that the police can then use it when there’s congregating or cruising of the boy racers.”

On whether the new rules would be effective in helping police address problems, Gibb said “I don’t know” but added “what they currently have is not good enough” and felt having rules similar to Hamilton and Waipā for relevant areas could also help police.

Gibb noted the potential for a clampdown in one area to send boy racers elsewhere in the district but felt the change would “give the police some teeth to use in other areas as well”.

Waikato district mayor Jacqui Church said in a text that she was 100% behind supporting police to reduce “the antisocial behaviour of some drivers on the roads who gather for burnout sessions”.

“Our people, both in urban and rural areas, have been highly impacted by these drivers and this is absolutely not OK.”

Last year a new Waipā bylaw saw signs advising of a ban on light motor vehicles on several rural roads.

It wasn’t expected to affect “law-abiding motorists” but gave police the power to issue warning notices and impound cars of rule breakers.

In 2022, light vehicle bans were put in place in some Hamilton industrial areas between 9pm and 4am unless drivers were “legitimately accessing a business or home on that street”.