Why are boy racers given a free run?

YOUR report that Kerry towns are ‘plagued’ by boy racers (January 19) could have been written about any town or village in Ireland today.

Believe me, this is not just a problem in Kerry. Concerned residents and visitors to Clonakilty mention it to me frequently, and I see it myself.

Over the past few years, I have raised it at several Clonakilty town council meetings and directly with garda representatives in writing. Still, nothing has changed.

Speeding, loud exhausts, blowing horns at night and travelling in convoys circling the streets of the town for hours on end, not to mention the trademark skid and doughnut marks in car parks and on country roads and junctions... all are commonplace.

It is a problem the general public are fed up with, but like many others (such as illegal public drinking), it seems to be ignored by gardaí. One of the great mysteries is why they don’t enforce the laws that we’ve got.

The boy racers driving cars with blacked-out windows and loud exhausts are hardly invisible and could be easily apprehended.

The problem is we don’t have gardaí on the beat in towns any more. There was a time if someone behaved like that when a garda, if not on the spot to apprehend offenders, would very soon find out their details and pay them a visit at their place of residence.

You quoted a garda spokesman as saying that when new regulations covering the modification of cars were introduced later this year, they would be enforced. This seems to be the typical response to a lot of social problems. If the law as it stands was enforced now, there would be no need for new regulations. This is only an excuse most of the time for doing nothing to resolve problems.

Cllr Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin

Cloich na Coillte

Co Chorcaí