Cheshire village car meet takes place despite police presence

Nearly a hundred people lined the streets for the meet - with one person travelling up from London

Car enthusiasts lined the streets of Alderley Edge for a planned car meet despite the police's best efforts to ward them off. The weekend event was one of a number of meets held in the upmarket village and nearby Wilmslow during recent weeks.

Made up of mainly young men with expensive DSLR cameras, close to a hundred people stood on the pavement of London Road, eagerly awaiting the next super car or luxury vehicle to emerge. There has been a crackdown on the meets, with reports of locals voicing their displeasure at the noise of revving engines and parking, with cars mounted pavements, roundabouts and grass verges

Multiple marked and unmarked police cars were stationed on London Road and Wilmslow Road. Two police officers were also on foot, where they stopped a number of motorists who were deemed to be causing a nuisance by revving their high powered cars and motorbikes along the route, reports the Manchester Evening News.

The drivers were asked to pull over, where they were handed a warning that could lead to a seizure of their vehicle should there be a second offence. Despite the crackdown, which saw Cheshire Police issue a 36 hour dispersal order on Alderley Edge on Sunday morning, petrolheads still came out to see the likes of Ferraris, Bentleys, Aston Martins, BMWs and vintage cars driven through one of Cheshire's most affluent areas.

Speaking to the M.E.N, one resident who preferred to remain anonymous described the event as "horrific" and another asked, "what have they turned the village into?" A dad from Liverpool, who also preferred to remain anonymous said: "I hate cars, but I brought my son because he wanted to come. The way I see it is, it's better than him doing drugs. I know some of the locals don't like it but that's the price you pay for being rich. These kids love fancy cars and this is the place they can find them."

Scott Evans drove from Wrexham to Alderley Edge for today's meet, the 42-year-old told the M.E.N: "Since I was a kid I've always loved cars and now my son's interested as well. It's a nice day out for us."It doesn't matter where you are, but you shouldn't be breaking the rules anyway, at the end of the day we all come because we like cars."I don't think we're misunderstood and the police are just trying to put rules in place where they should be. As long as the people in the cars are being safe, there's no real harm."

Aramis Parisi, 23, drove just over three hours from London to take part in the meet. "We have car meets here once every three or four months. You just drive straight through, show off your car, park up and watch the other cars.

"This is a legal one, everyone stays low, does everything legally. There can be illegal ones where it can be a bit crazy, people doing donuts. Today, hopefully it's a lot of cars coming and it should be quite calm. You do get the revs here and there, people showing off, but they've done this for a few years and it's pretty cool to see."

A dispersal order was in place until 10pm on Bank Holiday Monday. It covered the centre of Alderley Edge and a stretch of the A34 to the north of the village, and gave police the power to remove anyone suspected of committing crime or anti-social behaviour from the area.

Chief Insp Zoe Bowden said: ""This is an ongoing problem in the local area, and I want to reassure residents that we are committed to doing all we can to tackle the issue. We have a zero-tolerance approach to those who break the law, and I want to make it clear that action will be taken against anyone who breaches the dispersal order this weekend.

"This could include vehicle seizures, penalty notices, notifying insurance companies, or arrest and prosecution where necessary. This order is not aimed at people meeting in their cars peacefully, simply those disrupting local communities and acting in an anti-social manner. Our message is clear – anti-social behaviour and anti-social use of vehicles will not be tolerated."

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