Bid for new Black Country street racing ban

A legal bid to ban street racing in the Black Country is planned this week.

West Midlands Police, along with four local councils, is set to appear before the High Court on Tuesday to apply for an interim injunction.

It would ban people from participating in, attending, promoting, organising or publicising street races in Dudley, Wolverhampton, Sandwell and Walsall.

Anyone breaching the injunction could face up to two years in prison, or an unlimited fine.

Jasbir Jaspal, the Wolverhampton councillor responsible for public health and wellbeing, said: "Street racing, also sometimes described as car cruising, is noisy, dangerous and illegal and some events have resulted in serious injuries and even death."

He said a previous Black Country-wide injunction, which had been in place between 2015 and 2021, had "proved incredibly effective", but the problem had "begun to return to our streets again".

He added the authority had been "inundated with comments from residents and businesses whose lives are still being blighted by street racing" and their evidence of dangerous driving, excessive noise, and vehicles obstructing highways and properties had been used to bolster the case.

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