IT is the sleepy commuter town that, until this year, had not borne witness to a major crime for well over a decade.
But residents in Flitwick, Bedfordshire, say it has become a mecca for louts, drug dealers and boy racers since the pandemic and under-resourced police are so overwhelmed with paperwork they are incapable of clamping down.
The ‘ring of fire’ stunt left a circle of burnt tarmac in the car park[/caption]
A similar stunt was caught on camera and went viral last year[/caption]
Kids stand in the burning ring during a previous meet[/caption]
Without a local bobby in sight, the nighttime air is regularly filled with the noise of squealing tyres and roaring engines as gangs organise dangerous race meetings along the rural lanes – with one local comparing it to Hollywood’s Fast and Furious movies.
One recent ‘ring of fire’ stunt saw the car park of a remote business estate doused in petrol then set alight as yobs driving souped-up bangers spun recklessly around the flames – and went viral on social media.
Nigel Colclough is the Managing Director at PressFab Engineering where a number of these ‘meets’ have been held in the past three years.
His security system includes Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras capable of pinpointing exactly who owns the offending vehicles, yet not a single arrest has been made.
He said: “Our ANPR cameras have captured all the licence plates the previous time this happened and we sent that information to the police.
“All they did was send out letters warning the drivers that if they brought their cars here again they would be impounded.
“I’m sure the same people were back the other night so they just need to follow up, but they don’t do anything at all.
“The police are useless, to be honest. They spend all day doing paperwork and it doesn’t leave any time for solving crime.
“If they do make an arrest it means filling out even more forms, so they prefer to sit at their desks.
“These boy racers are committing criminal damage because they are setting fire to the tarmac and leaving cr*p everywhere, but nothing is being done about it.
Crowds of spectator put themselves in danger as the cars perform donuts at the Flitwick car meet[/caption]
“We are paying £30,000 in business rates that fund the police yet they don’t protect us.
“This has been going on for three or four years and it’s all driven by social media sites like Instagram.
“Six months ago they blocked both ends of a road with cars so they could race up and down.
“That was reported to the police and they didn’t even respond then.
“On Saturday, they poured petrol on the ground to create a ring of fire as they did donuts, and I heard that one person was injured when they were hit by a car.
“I’m certain someone is going to be killed and then finally the police might take notice, but I hope it doesn’t get that far.”
Deaths across UK
Underground car meets have become a huge issue across the UK and last year, the High Court issued a ban on street racing and gatherings of two or more vehicles for the purposes of stunts or dangerous driving in the Black Country, after a series of deaths.
Sam Harding, 20, died in April 2022 after being hit by an Audi at a car meet in Warrington, and later the same year Connor Richards, 23, died after a crash at a meet in Scunthorpe which injured 10 other participants.
In November 2022, Liberty Charris, 16, and 19-year-old Ben Corfield were killed and two other teenagers were left with serious injuries after being mowed down by a car as they watched street racing in Oldbury, West Midlands.
Flitwick locals fear the rise in meets in their area will also end in tragedy.
Car meets in other parts of the country have resulted in deaths. Liberty Charris was just 16 when she was killed during a race meeting in Oldbury.[/caption]
Ben Corfield, 19, was also killed when the car ploughed into spectators at the Oldbury meet[/caption]
Connor Richards, from Sheffield, was killed and another 10 people were injured in a crash in Scunthorpe in 2022[/caption]
Sam Harding was killed in a car crash at an unauthorised car meet in Warrington[/caption]
There was more outrage last weekend when police failed to attend after reports of a race meeting at Lyall Court on the outskirts of Flitwick, which is home to a number of businesses including PressFab Engineering and the local Screwfix.
The scorch marks left by Saturday’s meet – which saw petrol heads whooping and cheering the fast spinning cars – were still visible when The Sun visited this week, along with lingering resentment about the lack of law enforcement.
Bedfordshire Police admitted afterwards: “Due to available resources (it) did not send officers on this occasion.” A spokesperson for the constabulary added: “Even if we’re not able to attend the incident immediately, we work to collect evidence to identify those involved”.
However, critics claim those promises do not amount to much and that rural Bedfordshire has become a racetrack for out-of-control yobs.
Zoe Cairns, 44, runs the Crafty Little Things store on the nearby high street. She said: “It’s horrendous.
“I live just off the A507 and I’m regularly jolted awake in the middle of the night by the sound of kids doing donuts around the roundabout.
“You hear squealing tyres and roaring engines and constant explosions of the boy racer exhausts.
“They are going well above the 50mph speed limit and it’s dangerous, but there’s still no speed bumps or speed cameras on that stretch of road.
“There’s a petition to change the speed limit because people are sick and tired of this.
“School children walk down that road during the day and the noise is keeping people like me up all night.
“This area has become known as a place to race and as the police won’t do anything to stop them they keep coming back – it’s absurd.
“On 30 August, one of the boy racers hit a roundabout and damaged all the streetlights. I’m certain someone will be killed if this carries on.”
Businesses on the industrial estate are up in arms over the stunts[/caption]
Zoe Cairns says the racing and meets are ‘horrendous’[/caption]
Training instructor Jessica Davies, 49, is one of a number of residents who regularly makes the 50-minute commute to crime-plagued London as part of her job.
She worries that Westoning village half a mile from Flitwick, where she lives, is becoming equally dangerous.
Flitwick’s last murder was back in June 2012 when 15-year-old Megan-Leigh Peat was stabbed repeatedly by her jealous footballer boyfriend Andrew Hall, 18.
Locals say there has been an uptick in anti-social behaviour since the pandemic ended in 2022 and this year David Butler, 60, was charged with attempted murder following a stabbing in the town.
Jessica said: “It’s scary to be honest because things seem to be getting out of hand.
“You hear the races every three weeks on average now and normally at around 11pm.
“Westoning village is a through route and they come speeding down the road on their way to meetings in other parts of Bedfordshire.
“I was driving along one day when I realised I was stuck in between a number of cars that were racing me.
“There’s no police presence in this part of Bedfordshire and boy racers aren’t our only problem.
“There’s open drug dealing on a street near me and there seems to be a lot more crime than there was five years ago, yet if you report it to the police they don’t do anything.”
Flitwick is a quiet town but is plagued with teens racing cars[/caption]
Jessica Davis worries her village is becoming crime-ridden and dangerous[/caption]
David Shelley says the yobs are out of control[/caption]
David Shelley, 56, director at Grant Palmer Ltd on Lyall Court, said: “This is a nice rural area full of picturesque villages so people aren’t used to this kind of thing.
“There’s been a fair amount of discussion about what can be done to put a stop to it, but we don’t want gates and fences blocking people from entering the estate because that would make it look like a compound.
“Our fundamental view is that the police should sort this out because it’s a nuisance and a security concern – we don’t know who is coming here for these meetings and there can be more than a hundred of them gathered outside. It’s absolutely not safe.
“This should be relatively easy to sort. The police would no doubt argue they are lacking the necessary resources, but I don’t think that’s an excuse.
“One issue is that they’re focused on other parts of Bedfordshire. You don’t see us feature on 24 Hours in Police Custody a great deal.
“Clearly, we were all young once but there are limits on acceptable behaviour and the police are there to enforce the law. The fact that they haven’t got to grips with this suggests they have completely lost control.”
Statement from Bedfordshire Police
Inspector Janine Graham from Bedfordshire Police’s Central Community Team said:“ As part of our ongoing intelligence development work, officers have been engaging with businesses in Lyall Court, Flitwick, following a number of unauthorised car meets at the location.
“We are currently working in partnership with business owners and the local authority to explore the installation of a gate or barrier to improve site security. This initiative is part of a wider cross-border operation, and a meeting has been arranged with partners and neighbouring forces to support collaborative problem-solving.
“In the meantime, we continue to gather intelligence on further disruptive activity in the area. A Dispersal Order has been authorised for Flitwick and surrounding areas, and preventative measures are in place. Community officers have been deployed to provide a visible deterrent.
“We are actively working with our Intelligence Unit and Roads Policing Team to disrupt those involved in this behaviour. Enforcement action is ongoing, including the issuing of Section 59 notices (written warnings) based on evidence obtained from CCTV.
“Over the past 12 months, 224 Section 59 notices have been issued to vehicle owners in connection with car meet incidents across Central Bedfordshire. This reflects our continued commitment to tackling anti-social behaviour and protecting our communities.”
Not everyone in Flitwick is against the meet-ups, however. Father-of-two Sam Pigott, 35, runs Rascals Barbers on the estate.
He said: “It’s young lads having fun and I don’t see the problem with it.
“The ring of fire was a bit over the top and I can imagine that going wrong, but apart from that it’s just petrol heads socialising and having a good time.
“There’s not much for young people to do around here so at least they’re not out stealing or doing drugs.”
Plumber Louis Hartford-Smith, 22, said the boy racer gatherings have become more popular during the cost-of-living crisis.
He said: “Lyall Court has always been known as a major spot for meets because it’s an open space that’s out of the way.
“The people that go drive souped-up bangers and modded cars and I’ve never known anything to go wrong.
“I was into sports when I was younger so I’ve never been to one, but I can see why it’s getting more popular.
“Everything is so expensive nowadays. If you’re a teenager living here, it’s one of the few things you can do that is free and fun.”
Barber Sam Pigott says it’s just ‘young lads having fun’[/caption]
Plumber Louis Hartford-Smith says it’s ‘free and fun’[/caption]
