Following on from the event held on August bank Holiday Sunday things have moved on apace. I was unaware until a day or so afterwards that BBC Midlands ‘Inside Out’ team were actually on site filming the gathering. They confirmed as many as 1,000 young people were in attendance with between 500 and 700 vehicles. The filming they took, and showed on the Midlands Today programmes actually give an indication of the event being far more serious than I had thought. Many in attendance claimed the event was legal and as they were collecting money for cancer charities that would be ok.
My website post and subsequent social media references were picked up by local journalists and the issue was posted on Birmingham Mail website and newspaper. I was interviewed live on the lunch-time edition of Midlands Today and did a piece to camera for the evening edition. As well s being interviewed o local radio I was also interviewed by the Inside Out team, with a programme shown yesterday evening. I felt the piece was very well balanced. The links to these programmes are shown below.
BBC Midlands – Inside Out 7.9.15: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p031vhqy
Birmingham Mail: http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/shocking-scenes-1000-boy-racers-9970630
The petition I presented to Solihull Council in July went before the council’s cabinet Member for Highways and Transport on Thursday last (just for a progress report) and I attended to update the officers and council. The upshot of events is the council is to now work with Solihull Police to examine Place banning orders or seeking a Court injunction to stop these events in the borough. It is the latter that I am sure will happen.
I will update you all when I hear more. I do not wish to demonise the young people who gathered on the car park. Many did not know there were hundreds of houses nearby but the presence of so many people walking around whilst hundreds of vehicles are moving around, sometime recklessly, is a toxic mix and poses a clear danger to the public.
Ken Hawkins 