Anti-social Driving in Cheddar Gorge
The local beat team have started to see an increase in calls regarding anti-social driving in Cheddar village and the gorge.
Anti-social driving is where a vehicle or group of vehicles are being used in a way which is likely to cause members of the public harassment, alarm or distress.
For example, loud music, excessive and unnecessary engine revving, wheels spinning, hand brake turns and drifting.
The local beat team are conducting proactive patrols on evenings and weekends to monitor the situation.
If you witness a vehicle being used in this way, please call 101 or email the beat team with the registration, description of the vehicle and the manner in which the vehicle was being used.
Actions
-
9 May 2023
Local beat team continuing to patrol.
-
2 October 2022
Please upload any footage CCTV phone video ECT to
www.avonandsomerset.police.roads.uk/roads
this will take you to a police website where the footage and info will be sent directly to the officer in your area
-
31 October 2021
As we are now ending the summer season and the ASB driving in the gorge minimises we would still encourage public to report any ASB driving as we will be continuing to be proactive in prosecuting these drivers .
Please do not hesitate to report online or through our 101/999 call service
-
18 July 2021
GABIONS IN THE GORGE
Most of you will have seen by now the recent addition of the metal ‘gabions’ in Cheddar Gorge.
These were a police-funded initiative aimed at reducing the opportunity for antisocial driving in the Gorge. They are essentially large metal baskets filled with stones donated from a local quarry, which have been placed strategically in the car parks to act as barriers which reduce the ability for people to carry out dangerous manoeuvres, thus making it a safer environment for pedestrians, cyclists and other road users.
Longleat Estate have installed the gabions for us, and they are maintaining them on a regular basis, frequently having to carry out repairs due to damage caused during the evenings.
The gabions are a step towards reducing the antisocial driving in the area which deters visitors from coming to this beauty spot and disturbs the local residents, but multi-agency work is underway to formulate a longer-term more permanent solution to the problem.
In the meantime your local Neighbourhood Policing Team, along with response officer colleagues from surrounding areas, specialist traffic officers from the Roads Policing Unit, and volunteer police officers from our Special Constabulary continue to patrol the Gorge on a regular basis.
We also work closely with the local Community Speed Watch group who conduct periodic speed monitoring sessions in the lower Gorge, and we utilise the force drone whenever we can to assist with the monitoring of ‘car meets’.
We ask the public to report it if they witness anyone tampering with the gabions, as we will be taking any criminal damage to them seriously.