Residents’ peace ‘disturbed’ by boy racers at popular Tipperary beauty spot
Calls have been made for action to tackle so-called boy racer car meets at a popular Tipperary beauty spot, after gardaí were forced to disperse around 70 vehicles during a recent operation.
Local representatives say large groups of motorists regularly gather at The Vee, disturbing nearby residents and prompting calls for additional road measures.
The issue was rasied at the July meeting of the Tipperary-Cahir-Cashel Municipal District by independent councillor Máirín McGrath.
“Residents at the bottom of The Vee were onto me recently about the continued car meets or boy racers that are there, and it’s very, very difficult,” she said.
“Are there any other measures that we can employ to prevent that? It’s really disturbing the peace of the neighbours in the area,” she added.
Backing Cllr McGrath’s calls, Fine Gael councillor Marie Murphy said that a garda operation at the foot of The Vee had proved successful earlier in the summer.
“Gardaí did have an operation a number of weeks ago, there was about 70 cars that had converged there, and they scattered fairly quickly when there was two squad cars in the area,” she said.
“That can’t happen every weekend unfortunately, but the gardaí did what they set out to do and there needs to be additional road surfacing, lining, narrowing of spaces or something. The work that was done at the layby overlooking The Vee has been a fantastic success,” Cllr Murphy said.
“We need to do more of that further down. I’m not looking for stuff to be done straight away, I know it’s going to take a period of years to get everything done,” she added.
In response, district engineer James Swords said that the main issues with The Vee were for the gardaí to enforce.
“We can help with lining of roads and markings, but driver behaviour is something that will have to be addressed by the gardaí,” he said.
The Vee sits in the Knockmealdown Mountains between Tipperary and Waterford, and is so-named because of a v-shaped turn on the road.
The area is popular with walkers, cyclists and motorists alike for its views over the Tipperary countryside.
Earlier this year, the area was nominated for an award in the Best Drives series, in association with The Journal and Allianz Insurance, which aims to showcase some of the most picturesque drives across the country.