Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

‘Terrified and intimidated’ Glenrothes business owners call for ban on car meets

Business owners have called for further car meets to be banned.
Business owners have called for further car meets to be banned.

Business owners in Glenrothes are calling for car meets to be banned, fearing they are becoming “prisoners in their own properties”.

Hundreds of motor enthusiasts have descended on the town in recent weeks, from as far as Glasgow, the Borders and Dundee.

On June 12, Eastfield Industrial Estate was turned into a “race track” in the latest unregulated event.

People with businesses on the estate said they were left terrified by the scores of people and fear they will be subjected to more misery if another planned event is allowed to go ahead next month.

Details for gatherings are often shared on social media with ‘postcode drops’ indicating the exact location for the meet often only made public a few hours in advance.

The events can attract hundreds of vehicles with similar gatherings held in Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow in recent months.

Last month, a man needed hospital treatment after being injured at a meet in Dundee’s Kingsway Retail Park.

‘Terrified and intimidated’

One business owner, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, said they felt “terrified and intimidated” by the large gathering.

Many of the high performance cars performed burn outs, skids and other manoeuvres as hundreds of onlookers watched on.

Several business owners questioned the legality of the gathering, saying the large turn-out had blocked off their premises for several hours.

“It was very intimidating and several of my staff have refused to come back [if there is another meet],” said one owner.

“Cars blocked off access to our property effectively making us prisoners.

“It was disgraceful.

“The noise was so bad that when we called the police we couldn’t be heard as the screeching of the vehicles was so loud.

“I’ve checked with our landlord and the event wasn’t granted permission from the landowner.

“There was also no social distancing, hardly anyone wearing masks and the whole thing was a disaster waiting to happen.”

Police

Police attended the event and spoke to attendees but business owners are calling for more to be done.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 9.40pm on Saturday June 12, police received report of a car meet up at Eastfield Industrial Estate in Glenrothes.

“Officers attended and suitable advice was given.”

A group of tenants of the industrial estate have now called on local politicians to ban a further gathering at Eastfield planned for July.

‘Uncontrolled’

Glenrothes councillor Ross Vettraino said he was now in discussion with police after a number of concerns were raised.

He said: “I’m speaking to officers on how such a seemingly uncontrolled event such as this can take place.

“Several businesses have raised concerns over the large number of people and vehicles that turned up and the lack of any social distancing among the crowd.

“In addition I have also contacted Fife Council’s licencing team to see if a public entertainment licence for future events needs to be applied for.

“Discussions over potential breaches to health and safety legislation are also ongoing.”