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Blackwood supermarket takes hi-tech revenge on car cruisers

8:00am Friday 9th January 2009 in Search

CAR CRUISERS could be fined by supermarket chain Asda if they continue to use their car park in Blackwood.

The town store has installed two automatic number plate recognition cameras to catch cruisers in the car park.

Drivers banned from the site will also have their number plates named and shamed on a 32inch LED screen.

The store has long been the hub of cruisers in Blackwood, with as many as 400 cars seen visiting the car park on Thursday evenings.

Drivers are known to come as far as Manchester and London for the events, and the town's problem with car cruisers has been going on for around 20 years.

Police have had crackdowns and have in the past imposed a dispersal order on the High Street.

Asda general manager David Evans said car parking attendants will be monitoring car cruisers and issuing them with banning orders on Thursday nights.

They will then input the number plates into the £20,000 ANPR system, which will automatically detect drivers when they drive in or out of the store.

Details of how fines will be managed have yet to be finalised, but Asda plans to charge £60 for an initial breach of a banning order. This would double with each visit - so a third breach could cost as much as £240.

Mr Evans said the store had been losing custom because of the problem.

He added: "Customers feel they drive too fast around the car park, and whenever there’s a gang of youths they tell us they feel intimidated."

It is hoped the scheme will start next month.

Blackwood councillor Kevin Etheridge welcomes the move and hopes it will put a stop to the problem.

He said the town was like "the Bronx" on Thursday nights, and said he had known customers of the Asda who had taken as long as 25 minutes to get into the store from the high street because of cruisers.

Cllr Etheridge added: "I hope its going to be properly enforced and monitored."

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