Noble Park residents, from left, Cheryl Collins, Margaret Irons and Ray Collins say hoon events are not uncommon in Noble Park.By Shaun Inguanzo
ANGRY Noble Park residents say Saturday’s hoon gathering was just the latest in a weekly organised and illegal drag racing event.
Princes Highway residents Cheryl and Ray Collins, along with neighbour and Noble Park Keysborough Lions Club president Margaret Irons, said hoon gatherings were happening weekly on Friday nights near the Noble Park McDonald’s.
Mr Collins said the couple would not leave the house as people jumped neighbourhood fences to ‘relieve themselves’ in residents’ back yards
He said residents had long experienced the loud and frightening nature of the event.
“We always have sleepless nights,” Mr Collins said.
Mrs Collins said the behaviour was deplorable.
“They relieve themselves and leave their condoms and needles everywhere,” she said.
“But we don’t try and stop them in case they make a move on us.”
The residents said they had complained to police about the night-time gatherings, but it was not until the event reached boiling point last Saturday that police and the council took action.
“If they had nipped it in the bud even last week when it happened (5 January) then this wouldn’t have happened,” Mrs Collins said.
But Victoria Police Superintendent Gavin Barry told a media scrum that the problem had not been left too long.
And Greater Dandenong CEO John Bennie said the hoon problem was widespread across Victoria, not just Greater Dandenong.
