Sophisticated device will help officers identify cars whose exhausts exceed legal noise levels

POLICE at Lyme Regis have been given a new weapon in their fight to combat noisy cars.

Officers are set to use sophisticated sound level equipment to identify vehicles with excessively loud exhausts.

They say they will be issuing fixed penalty notices to offenders and take them to court if they don’t reduce the noise to legal levels.

Community Beat Manager Richard Winward said: “We have had enough of cars with noisy exhausts, and from what we are being told, the residents of Lyme Regis have had enough as well.

“I consider these noisy exhaust pipes to be anti-social and look forward to the crack-down.

“We have already started making a list of those cars we will be checking, but I would encourage residents to supply me with registration numbers of cars that they believe are more noisy than they would have been when first manufactured.”

PC Winward said they were targeting cars fitted with large exhaust pipes, usually driven by young people, with the intention of creating more noise.

“We have all heard the ‘thumping’ racket as these cars drive around the town, “ he said. “Up to now we have been unable to deal with these drivers but this has now changed thanks to a sophisticated piece of equipment that measures the noise in decibels that is emitted from a car exhaust pipe.

“It works by a police officer placing a microphone near to the exhaust pipe and revving the engine to two-thirds of its maximum. If the resulting reading is over the legal limit then the driver gets a �30 pound penalty ticket and must then get the exhaust made legal. Failure to do so will lead to court proceedings.

“We will also notify the person’s insurance company to make sure that they have been told about the vehicle’s modification. It may be that they void the insurance. If a car is uninsured we will seize it.”