POLICE have said they will look into claims that Wellington is being used as a racetrack in the early hours of the morning by a group of speeding motorists.

Members of Wellington Town Council heard on Monday (October 6) from a concerned resident who told them that it was a regular occurrence to hear noisy cars racing through the town.

“I hear cars which are without doubt breaking the dB (decibel) levels,” he said. “For 14 days in a row between 12.20am and 4am there were two or three cars racing through Wellington at very high speeds.

“I heard they were doing doughnuts around the roundabout up by the Travelodge.”

He added: “At some stage something really serious is going to happen.”

The maximum legal noise level for a car’s exhaust system is 74 decibels (dB) when measured from a distance of 0.5-metres from the exhaust pipe.

The legal sound limit for all new cars is 72 dB which is set to decrease to 68 dB from 2026.

Sgt Jon O’Connor, of Wellington Police, who listened to the fears asked the man to start taking notes of times as to when the alleged speeding was taking place so that officers could get a picture of the late-night activity.

“If there is a pattern to the high speed driving then great, but we could be sat there for hours waiting for a car to go past,” he said.

But the concerned resident said he had reported the problems to police on at least 25 occasions in the past.

Sgt O’Connor said he would look into it and speak to the police traffic department.

Later in the council meeting – which was held at the United Reformed Church Hall in Wellington – councillors heard a car race by outside which had a noisy exhaust system.

“There goes one,” quipped a councillor.