Anti-social behaviour at Babraham Park & Ride

Cambridge City Liberal Democrats are working hard to prevent anti-social behaviour at City Park & Rides. Residents have been deeply upset by late night noisy cars, loud music and speeding cars around the Babraham Park & Ride. They are organised by groups from far away and advertised on social media without any consideration for those living nearby.

A public space protection order (PSPO) is the best way of preventing these events from happening as it makes it easy for the police to arrest those behaving badly. However, they are difficult to put in place and require a lengthy administrative process. Since Babraham Park & Ride is in both Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire District council land, a PSPO is required from both councils to be effective.

A PSPO has been put in place in Milton and now we are working to put a PSPO in place for all Cambridge City Park & Rides so that the problem is not merely displaced from one Park & Ride to another.

A report needs to be drawn up on the plan, it needs to have public consultation and then each council needs to officially decide to do it and the process will take several months.

In the meantime, we are exploring other ways to prevent the events from happening. Residents have called for physical barriers to be put in place. However, there are two main problems with this approach: 1) NHS workers at Addenbrookes park at non-standard times and we do not want to prevent them from parking there and 2) the barriers already there are not currently functional and will need to be either repaired or replaced which will take about the same time as a PSPO.

The police are willing to help however, they do have to prioritise where they send officers. Life threatening situations and domestic violence will take priority over the situation at Babraham Park & Ride.

There is the possibility of issuing what is called a section 59 notice where the police physically see the offence. However, this is merely a warning and puts the offender and their car under notice. If they are caught again, then the car can be impounded. This is clearly very cumbersome for the police to carry out and requires at least two offences.

Also, the experience of the police is that even if they do turn up and disburse those car drivers, they cannot stay on guard and will have to attend to the next situation. In which case, the drivers can just come back again.

The police are very aware of the situation and have offered to send special constables, subject to their availablility, where they know of a meet happening.