Wiltshire Police visit Station Road, Devizes, 28 times in a month

In a post on the Devizes Town Council website, Town Clerk Simon Fisher says that the council, joined with representatives from the police and Wiltshire Council, met with residents of Station Road to discuss issues they are having.

Mr Fisher said that it became clearly from the discussion that there is an issue with the noise from spinning wheels, smoke, loud radios and speed, to the extent that many local residents cannot use their gardens in the evening and have to keep their windows closed.

There is also a fear factor that cars are travelling at a high speed, even when pedestrians are in the car park.

The residents say this behaviour goes on at all times of the night and into the early morning and "is evidenced by a recent accident on Station Road, where a vehicle travelling at speed hit a lamp column".

The post said: "Clearly, there is a policing issue here, and they do acknowledge that and have visited the car park 28 times in the last month.

"It is clear that a solution needs to be found to this problem which will involve multiple organisations pooling resources to resolve the issue.

"What is frustrating is that the number of people causing the problem is quite low, but the impact on the community is so large and the cost of dealing with it falls on the whole community."

A Wiltshire Police spokesman said: “We have been engaging with both the town council and the local authority to understand what work could be done to deter anti-social motorists from using the car park in a way which causes annoyance and distress for local residents.

“This is not something which can be dealt with by policing alone, but by finding a long-term solution to a problem which has been going on for some time.

“While those conversations are ongoing, please be reassured that we will continue to carry out proactive patrols in the local area, and will continue to liaise with residents around their concerns.”