MP from Basingstoke says residents are fed up with 'dangerous car meets'
ITV Meridian's Mel Bloor reports
An MP from Basingstoke says residents are fed up with 'car meets' which he says can be dangerous and can lead to anti-social behaviour and excessive noise.
Labour's Luke Murphy said when he was elected he wanted to make tackling the illegal meets a top priority.
A car enthusiast from Reading, who has been attending authorised car meets for the last 20 years, told ITV News Meridian a small minority are giving others a bad name.
Watch: A car meet-up in a supermarket car park in Sandhurst
Gatherings like the one in Sandhurst have grown in popularity in recent years and often draw hundreds of spectators and cars in one place, prompting complaints from local residents.
Unless prior permission has been sought as part of an organised event, a car meet is illegal.
In Basingstoke, regular gatherings have been reported leading to calls for a crackdown from the town's MP.
Luke Murphy MP for Basingstoke
Luke Murphy, Labour MP for Basingstoke, said: "You can have significant noise around these meets and considerable speeding, but really the main issue that the residents have is also around safety.
"They worry that because of the activities that happen around these car meets, that someone can be injured or worse, fatality.
"We have seen incidents of that in the past."Conservative local Councillor Stephen Reid, Basingstoke South West, is also keen to see tougher action taken.
He said: "I came out and had a look at one of the meets that was held in this car park and there were people on the road outside, spectators.
"There were lots of cars in here and some of them were doing 'doughnuting' and drifting and very dangerous manoeuvres."There have also been concerns in places like Theale and Winchester over safety at these events.
In Alton, a number of vehicles were seized following a meet.
According to the AA, one in 10 say they have seen more events in their area in the last 12 months.
Jack Cousens, Head of Roads Policy for the AA, said: "The impact car meets have on local communities can be detrimental.
"As well as noise pollution particularly late at night, there's often racing that can happen on ring roads and places like that.
"But we also see damage caused to road infrastructure like lamposts and signs as well as more vehicle crashes going on." Neil Sibly, a car enthusiast from Reading, has been attending authorised meets for 20 years and says a small minority are giving others a bad name.
Neil Sibly says real car enthusiasts don't want to cause health and safety issues for everybody around
He said: "They're not really car enthusiasts, these are people that just want a bit of attention.
"We don't like that, that's not what we're into, our passion is the car, not being silly or causing health and safety issues for everybody around, no one likes it.
"The real enthusiasts, we walk away from that type of thing, we don't like it going on, we don't want that going on it at our meetups or car shows or anything else. "Hampshire and Thames Valley Police say they have made it clear in recent months that anti-social behaviour at car meets will not be tolerated and have seized a number of vehicles.Their message is if you don't want officers knocking at your door, don't drive dangerously on the roads.
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