Police ramp up efforts to tackle boy racers as Christchurch hoons leave residents fuming

Residents of Christchurch’s Banks Peninsula are at their wits’ end over boy racers – with one woman so fed up she has made about 60 complaints to police since April.

It comes as police in the city have ramped up search warrants in the last month, impounding cars for 28 days suspected of doing burnouts and drag racing following complaints from the public.

Among those seized is a Lamborghini Gallardo, one of only nine of its kind in the country.

Rapaki Bay resident Luana Swindell, who has lived in the area for about eight years, said boy racers were an issue on a nightly basis, the noise from burnouts and modified exhausts echoing off the hills, particularly between 11pm and 3am.

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Residents were also frustrated by the damage done to roads and property from car enthusiasts.

“It’s been an issue for the entire community … the noise is just really intolerable”, she said.

Since April, Swindell had made about 60 complaints to police’s 105 number – averaging more than one a week.

“It’s not just me, but I’m being probably more proactive on reporting them because that’s what I was told to do,” she said.

“We’ve had enough. We’ve got to think about what we’re going to do to either manage this ourselves if the police and council are reluctant to do it.”

Among the options discussed previously among residents are speed cameras, street lighting, a constant police presence in the area, installing road barriers, and closing roads to non-residents.

Fellow Rapaki Bay resident Paul Skipper, who owns a couple of classic V8 cars himself, said he understood the feeling of driving a high-powered vehicle but that there was a time and a place.

“In the middle of the night is not the right time to be hooning around the hills,” he said.

“The problem is the sound reverberates right through the valley, and they tend to run in packs, racing each other.”

Skipper said there appeared to be a “total disregard” for speed restrictions in the area.

“It would be like driving up the main street of Christchurch and just completely ignoring all the speed signs. It’s a huge concern for me, we’ve had some reasonably close calls.”

Banks Peninsula community board chairwoman Tori Peden said boy racing was an “ongoing issue” which the board had discussed with police.

“They have told us that they’re working on different strategies and that helps a wee bit, but it doesn’t actually get to the bottom of the problem.

“It is an ongoing frustration, and we hear that in the community, we’re just not sure what to do ourselves.”

She had not heard of residents considering roadblocks, but knew they were “right at their wits’ end”.

“It’s frustrating. The council are limited as to what they can do … you can’t stop users of a public space. You try and put restrictions on one group, and it disadvantages another.”

Lyttelton police Sergeant Gerard Peoples said he was “mindful” of concerns regarding boy racers and was looking at how officers could concentrate on the issue where possible.

Lyttelton currently has three police officers, with two more coming next month.

Peoples said Swindell’s complaints had provided valuable data over when problems spiked, allowing police to get officers out at the right times.

Christchurch City Council head of transport Richard Osborne said council staff were working with police to share information and address anti-social road user and general speed activity around Banks Peninsula.

The owner of the seized Lamborghini, Paul Hoper, said he was not driving the car at the time of the alleged offending, and that the person who was behind the wheel at the time would defend the charges brought against him.

Hoper said he used the car for charity events and offering experiences to children with disabilities and terminal illnesses, as well as community programmes, and that the person facing charges was not associated with the YouTube channel advertised on the car.

Sergeant Greg Hume, who leads Christchurch’s anti-social road user team, said police were ramping up search warrants at properties where people were suspected of doing burnouts and drag racing.

“This is a timely reminder to anyone that they are at a very real risk of losing their vehicle for 28 days when identified doing burnouts.

“Particularly in built-up areas ... the risk is greater causing harm to not only innocent bystanders, but also to the vehicle occupants.”