Menace of car racers

Grown-up "boy racers" are speeding around the roads of the Merry Hill Centre - with children strapped into the back seat of their vehicles.

Police have now started to film the reckless motorists at the Brierley Hill complex.

One shocking piece of footage they have already captured shows a motorised go-kart being unloaded in one of the centre's car parks, before people take turns to whiz around in it at break-neck speeds.

A new public group involving police, ambulance, firefighters, centre owners Westfield, traders and ward councillors has now been formed to counter these night time antics.

Councillor Rachel Harris is a member of the Merry Hill Community Safety Forum and said many of the so-called "boy racers" did not fit the youthful stereotype.

"These are not young kids and teenagers, many of them are grown adults," she said.

"I went out with the security workers at Merry Hill recently and you see them coming down Mill Street, racing around the roundabout, before parading past the cinemas and around the car parks.

"I even saw one grown man speeding around the roads in a top-of-the-range Range Rover, complete with video screens and two children in the back.

"Increasingly, you are also getting groups of young girls hanging around to watch it all, which obviously doesn't help."

Councillor Harris said the first Merry Hill Community Safety Forum meeting would be held at the ATS training centre, in the Waterfront, on January 16, starting at 6.30pm.

"The police and Westfield have consistently made efforts to put a stop to these problems, but the time has come when everyone needs to work together," she said.

By Richard Williams