Two drivers ordered to pay over £1,000 after attending illegal car meet in Yorkshire

A further 12 cases will be brought before the courts in August, and Bradford Council has warned anyone considering attending an unauthorised meet in the district that they could face a similar fine and a criminal record.

A driver from near Pontefract and another from Pudsey were two of a number of people who attended a car meet at the Euroway Trading Estate last July.

Those who took part in the meet did not realise that CCTV cameras had recently been installed at the site, and many of the vehicles involved were captured on camera. The footage included cars racing each other down the street. The owners of all the vehicles that could be identified were issued fines.

Two of those who attended the meet, Hayden Burrows of Roker Lane, Pudsey and Connor Horan of Seals Drive, Ackworth, failed to pay the fines, and so were due to appear at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates Court on Thursday (May 23). Neither man attended, and they were sentenced in their absence.

Both were found guilty, fined £440 and ordered to pay £518 coasts and a £176 court surcharge.

Car meets are banned in Bradford due to a public space protection order – implemented to stop driving that may not necessarily be illegal, but is deemed a nuisance or anti-social. The court was told the council had received numerous complaints of unauthorised car meets on Wharfedale Road at the Euroway Industrial Estate.

Police were called to the street on July 5 to reports of such a meet. Officers contacted the Council and CCTV at the site was used to identify many of the vehicles taking park.

One vehicle, a black Audi A3, was found to belong to Horan. A grey Alpha Romeo involved in the meet was registered to Burrows. Both were sent fixed penalty notices of £100, but these were never paid – leading to the council instigating the prosecutions.

After ordering both defendants to pay a total of £1,134 each, chair of the bench Mrs Roberts said: “They should have paid the £100 fixed penalty notice.”

After the case Michael Churley, Bradford Council’s community safety co-ordinator, said: “We hope these prosecutions send out the strong message that anti-social car meets cannot be permitted, and anyone found participating in such an event will face a fine and a criminal record.”

The council says car meets, where drivers congregate on a street or car park for an unauthorised event that often involves racing, have caused “a great deal of anxiety” to people living near the industrial estate.

The anti-social driving public space protection order was introduced in 2019 to tackle the amount of anti-social driving in Bradford.

It bans any use of a vehicle in a way which could cause harassment, alarm or distress. This includes, but is not limited to; excessive noise and revving engines; causing danger to other road users (including pedestrians); shouting, swearing at, or abusing, threatening or intimidating another person – including using sexual language or making sexual suggestions.

The order covers any space to which the public has access to, including roads, car parks, parks and green spaces. Anyone failing to comply with the order could face a Fixed Penalty notice or fine of £1,000.

Coun Matt Edwards has long called for more to be done to tackle the issue of unauthorised car meets in the area.

After the court case he said: “I am glad to see that Bradford Council has finally started to use the powers it has to tackle anti-social car use on Euroways. Cameras were installed on Wharfedale Road in 2022 but up until the summer of last year only nine tickets were issued. Green Party councillors have made a big fuss of this and since then we are seeing the action that is needed.

“There is actually a road of houses in Euroways and Rockhill Lane is well used by residents in Bierley so this is absolutely not a harmless thing to do. We know dangerous driving in Bradford is a big issue – that is why we have this public space protection order.”