Car cruisers at Aldi spark police blitz

It follows complaints from people living in Moxley, who claim groups are gathering on the car park of an Aldi supermarket on Sunday evenings.

Officers have been working with the community to try to stamp out the problem.

And last night, police were out in force to raise awareness of the issue and to deter suspected boy racers from causing a nuisance.

A group of around 15 cars and dozens of bystanders began to gather on the supermarket car park, off the High Street, from around 8pm.

Police stressed no offences were committed but they arrived at the car park to speak to those gathered about the possibility of anti-social behaviour.

Sgt Leigh Hale, neighbourhood sergeant for Darlaston and Moxley, said: "There is no actual offence for parking on the car park as it is a public right of way.

"But it sometimes brings anti-social behaviour with it and residents have complained of anti-social behaviour, such as the noise of vehicles. Also if racing does take place, it is obviously dangerous."

He said officers would be enforcing minor traffic offences at the site and would be looking at issues such as insurance and car checks.

He added: "Police are currently going for a high court injunction to tackle street cruising, like the one in place in Cannock.

"Police in Walsall, Sandwell, Dudley and Wolverhampton are all working on it together so there is not just a problem of displacement, with it moving from one place to another.

"It will have a massive Impact and that is now going through the legal system. While that is happening, we want to do something in the short term to tackle this issue."

Police were keeping a presence at the supermarket for several hours last night and set up speed cameras on surrounding routes to catch any speeding drivers.

Aldi has said it is working with the police and local councillors to see what can be done to tackle the problem.