Efforts to tackle anti-social driving in Turriff continue
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Operations targeting anti-social behaviour on north-east roads have seen a focus on Turriff, where repeated complaints of incidents were raised by residents.
In response road policing and local officers carried out joint patrols to crackdown on this three weeks ago and officers issued 35 fixed penalty notices for road traffic offences including excessive speed and illegal modifications.
A further three fixed penalty notices were issued for drivers with no insurance.
One driver was also subject of a report to the Procurator Fiscal in connection with road traffic offences.
At Turriff Community Council on Monday evening, Sgt Stuart Gordon from the Formartine Policing team was welcomed to the meeting, to give a further update as part of the police report.
He explained to members and attending local residents that work to tackle the issue was ongoing and that, following the initial action, efforts would continue to help deal with the issues being caused at sites in the town.
Giving a background to the discussion which ensued over potential methods of prosecution, he said: "Inspector Mark Young is actively tasking officers to follow up on reports.
"In order to deal with these drivers, we do need to have corroborated evidence from two witnesses."
Local residents pointed out their continued frustration, in particular the "attitude" expressed by operators on 101 when reporting issues and also the lack of follow-up to reports.
Many were well aware of the protagonists, as indeed were the police as Sgt Gordon confirmed: "We know its the same faces and the same vehicles.
"There are elements of this that require the presence of specialists from Roads Policing to deal with when it comes to pressing for convictions and their support continues to take place."
Questions over the staffing at Turriff were also raised, and Sgt Gordon confirmed that the station was manned on the rota system as was the station in Ellon where he is based.
He pointed out: "Turriff currently has a compliment of six officers and one sergeant.
"The presence of vehicles outside the station is however not an indication - there are two allocated to the station but officers may be out of the building, or they may be tasked to work elsewhere."
Questioned on the issue of CCTV as a potential source of evidence he confirmed that it was available to police, but one issue was that it does not have sound - so while driving actions can be seen, things like revving and engine noise from cars with removed catalytic convertors was not.
He reminded locals that using the email contact was the fastest way to get information to the team, and corroboration was important.
Driving standards were also being addressed with the next generation of drivers as work was underway at Turriff Academy to carry out driving standards talks for new drivers.
Residents and councillors noted that while there had been a reduction at present at the sites previously associated with anti-social driving, the same drivers were now being noted at other locations in the vicinity - in particular around Cuminestown.
Aside for the driving issues, the matter of fly tipping was also raised, however this is not a criminal offence and is a matter for the council to deal with and issue fines (as per parking on double yellow lines).
