Plea to supermarket to help tackle anti-social behaviour

An Aberdeen councillor has called on a supermarket to restrict access to its car park after the store has closed in a bid to prevent "meet-ups" of large numbers of cars.

It comes after two arrests were made during an event involving hundreds of cars on Saturday in the car park of the Asda store on Garthdee road.

Police Scotland said such events cannot continue at the expense of people's safety, or the surrounding communities.

Asda said it was looking at ways to further deter anti-social behaviour in the car park.

Councillor Ian Yuill, who represents the local area, said the meet-ups were happening every week and they were causing stress to residents.

"It is every weekend and not just one night of the weekend," he told BBC Scotland News.

"It causes noise, it causes disturbance, and I have had people saying they are planning on selling their homes.

"The engines revving, the bangs go on very often into the wee small hours, well after midnight."

Police Scotland said Saturday's "meet-up" involved 700 cars and two men, aged 25 and 28, were arrested for a road traffic offence and drug offences.

Fourteen vehicles were issued with prohibitions due to dangerous conditions and three were seized after being driven without insurance.

Eight vehicles were issued with defect notices and there were 58 offences relating to construction, use and MOTs that were dealt with by fixed penalty notices.

They expected further offences would be identified in the coming weeks.

Yuill called on Asda to restrict access to their car park after the store closed at midnight.

He added: "The police are well aware of the problem and they have taken action in the past, but the problem has not gone away and certainly last weekend seems to have been particularly bad.

"It is a private car park, it is controlled by Asda and it is open to Asda to close the car park, close access to their car park when their store is no longer open and that would go a long way to solving the problem."

A spokesman for Asda said the company would continue to work with local authorities on the matter.

He added: "We are working closely with the police and local community council and are looking at ways to further deter anti-social behaviour in our car park, while ensuring it continues to meet the needs of the vast majority who use it responsibly."

Garthdee Community Council previously met with store management to discuss the issue.

In a social media post, they encouraged residents to pass on feedback on how the "antisocial behaviour" is affecting them.

They hoped this would help them "work towards a safer and more peaceful environment for everyone in Garthdee."