A CLAMP down on boy racers is hoped to stem escalating anti-social behaviour among young people in an affluent residential area in Enniskillen.
In a bid to defuse mounting tension in the area over night-time engine revving, Fermanagh District Council will erect a barrier which will close off the Holyhill carpark in the evenings, preventing young people from using it as their personal racing track.
Throngs of teens and young people often congregate in the carpark late in the evenings right through until the early hours of the morning, causing headaches for local residents.
The news has been welcome by families and elderly people living in the Holyhill area who say they have been plagued by late-night noise pollution for up to six years with one family almost forced to sell their home.
Local families say they can now sleep at night and are relieved the two-year campaign has been resolved.
One resident, who doesn’t want to be named, explained that the past five years have been tense but is ‘over the moon’ to see the council’s commitment to help stem the anti-social behaviour.
He added that the anti-social behaviour coupled with the noise became ‘unbearable’, prompting local residents to launch their nightly supervision and recordings on boy racers.
A father of two young children, who has lived in the area for over ten years, said the problem began some six years ago but escalated over the last two years
He said: “It got to the point that there were so many people meeting up that the noise levels got too much to live with so we had to take action.
“The problem has been very stressful as we are often kept awake until 3am and although we try to learn to live with it, listening to that noise seven nights a week is unbearable.
“It’s at the point where I just expect it every night. When I go to turn the TV on it kicks off and the noise is louder than the television.
“We have small children and listening to that noise becomes infuriating.
“So we are very relieved to hear the barrier is going up and it will make such a difference to family-life.”
A second resident explained that he would often spend evenings filming the young people who rev their engines in hope of identifying them and passing the footage on to police.
He added that despite police effort to clamp down on the culprits, it didn’t prevent the litter louts from gathering in the area.
The family-man said they were often kept awake until 4am.
He added: “We try and keep a look-out from 9pm until midnight with supervisions, but it’s sparatic throughout the night and as soon as they rev their engines, they disappear, making it harder for police to catch them.
“It’s not just weekends that residents have to suffer, but Wednesday nights are often a huge problem because of student night.
“At its worst, it was very bad and we would be up at midnight listening to the cars and then phoning the police and that continues on throughout the night.”
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