LETTER: North Louth resident fury at boy racers 'terrorising' local community

What some residents have described as a “scourge”, the issue of so-called “boy racers” in parts of north Louth over the Christmas period, and over the past couple of years, has escalated so much that one resident has penned a letter to the Dundalk Democrat, pleading for action to be taken before a tragedy occurs.

In the letter which the Democrat has published in full below, the author, who lives in north Louth but wishes to remain anonymous, also highlights other anti-social behaviour taking place in the area, including littering and the dumping of diesel sludge.

Dear Editor,

I’m writing at a time when there are irresponsible boy-racers terrorising my local community.

I live alone very close to the border and have had quite a difficult Christmas due to the level of anti-social behaviour going on within the community I’ve lived in all of my life.

The scourge of boy-racers, a point which your newspaper has touched on before, was at its worst in recent weeks, which has been very unsettling.

I have struggled to get to sleep some nights for fear of damage being caused to my property by these people, who seem to have no regard for anybody but themselves.

Possibly the worst night was Christmas Eve when it wasn’t until the early hours of the morning when the commotion halted.

A couple of nights earlier, I was driving towards one of the main roads into Dundalk and less than 100 yards in front of me there was a man in a white van spinning around the road as though it was a typical driving manoeuvre.

I ended up turning back and going home for fear of coming across a similar incident later that night.
What’s more, the issue doesn’t just exist at night time. The boy-racers can often be heard during the day, especially on New Year’s Eve when it took out around lunchtime.

Where I live is a known anti-social hub given the incredible littering that the council has to clean up.

The dumping of sludge cubes is a regular occurrence and something the local authority doesn’t appear to be interested in eradicating.

Their general response is to just remove the tanks rather than trying to prevent their dumping in the first place, which considering they’re usually left in the same place couldn’t be too difficult.

I returned home another night over the festive period before leaving within a matter of minutes again, only to find a trail of litter from left of my front gate all the way to the end of the road on the right.

Plastics, mineral cans, wrapping paper, Santa bags and even a black ball full of used nappies.

My community works hard to keep the area clean and are proud of our tidy towns’ status, but the efforts of litterers are undermining the good work that is being done, while the boy-racers are making our roads very unsafe to use, particularly at night.

Will it take a fatality for these people to be stopped and reduce the mounting fear-levels within our community? I can only assume that I’m not alone in my feelings.

Regards,
North Louth Resident