‘Boyracers are keeping residents awake at night’

A former lord mayor of Cork has spoken out against ‘anti-social behaviour’ in Ballincollig.

Colm Kelleher told The Echo he had received several complaints about “boy racers and racing enthusiasts” using a local petrol station as a staging ground “pulling doughnuts, and doing wheelspins in the middle of the night”.

“A number of concerned residents in the West Village, in Lisheen Woods and Lisheen Falls, have contacted me in relation to anti-social behavior,” Mr Kelleher said.

“The local residents in the West Village are decent, hard-working people who have gone away and got mortgages, been lucky enough to be approved for mortgages, and now they’re being awoken, and their babies are being awoken, in the dead of night by bump valves and screeching tyres, and boy racers and racing enthusiasts.

“I have raised this with the gardaí and this is something that needs to be stamped out, because this is a residential area...it’s not a race track, and people are entitled to a bit of peace in their own homes,” Mr Kelleher said.

In recent weeks, Sinn Féin councillor Eolan Ryng spoke on this page about his concerns at anecdotal reports of an apparent upturn in opportunistic crime in Ballincollig.

Mr Ryng also said he believed that the Garda station was under-resourced for an area of Ballincollig’s size.

Responding, Fine Gael councillor Derry Canty said he took issue with Mr Ryng’s comments, accusing him of “scaremongering”.

Mr Canty said that while there might be some petty crime in the area: “The situation in Ballincollig is that we have gardaí on the street, we have [community] gardaí, we have Neighbourhood Watch, and we’re on top of things.”