Watching a car meet would be an offence under Cheshire East's draft order, which also allows acoustic cameras. The consultation closes at 5pm on 14 October.

Cheshire East wants powers to fine people for standing and watching a car meet, not just for taking part in one.

The council opened a four-week consultation on 16 September on a borough-wide Public Spaces Protection Order covering excessive vehicle noise and anti-social driving. Its press release set out the behaviour it wants to stop and the fines it wants to impose. It did not mention spectators.

The draft order itself does, at length. Part 3 says no person shall “organise, promote, advertise, facilitate, participate in, attend or spectate at” a vehicle gathering where anyone present causes, or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm, distress, nuisance or annoyance.

The reasoning is set out in the document. Spectators “play a significant role in the continuation and escalation of anti-social vehicle activity”, the council writes, and large crowds “encourage and incentivise dangerous behaviour”. It concludes that “addressing both participants and spectators is therefore essential”.

The consultation closes at 5pm on Wednesday 14 October. If the order is approved it takes effect on 9 November 2026 and runs for three years.

Key dates for Cheshire East's proposed anti-social driving order: police dispersal order in Alderley Edge 24 October 2025, consultation opens 16 September 2026, closes 5pm 14 October 2026, order takes effect 9 November 2026 for three years. Fixed penalty up to £100, court fine up to £1,000.

What the order would ban

The draft splits the behaviour into three parts. Part 1 covers noise:

  • excessive engine revving
  • repeated acceleration and deceleration
  • deliberate generation of excessive exhaust noise
  • repeated sounding of a horn without reasonable cause
  • amplified music played at a volume likely to cause nuisance, alarm, harassment or distress

Part 2 covers driving:

  • wheel spinning and deliberate loss of traction
  • rapid acceleration intended to create excessive noise
  • revving while stationary
  • street racing
  • manoeuvres “undertaken for exhibition, entertainment or spectacle”
  • vehicle convoys causing nuisance, obstruction or disturbance

Part 3 covers the gatherings themselves, including drifting, doughnuts, burnouts and handbrake turns, convoys that block other traffic, public address systems, and conduct “that attracts spectators and results in noise, intimidation, disorder, littering, criminal damage, public nuisance or risks to public safety”.

Two lines in that part matter more than the list. A gathering can be “pre-arranged or spontaneous” and “may consist of any number of vehicles, occupants or spectators”. And it “may be deemed prohibited regardless of whether any criminal offence has been committed”.

Where the council says it is happening

The order names four locations, two of them on our patch:

  • the A34 corridor
  • the A523 Silk Road, Macclesfield
  • the A54 Congleton bypass
  • Jack Mills Way, Crewe (A532)

It adds “other locations across the Borough”, which is the stated reason for making the order borough-wide: the document says anti-social vehicle activity “frequently relocates between different locations within the Borough in response to enforcement activity”.

Councillor David Jefferay, cabinet member for environment, sustainability and waste management, said in the council’s announcement that the behaviour “goes beyond just ‘noise’”, and that “in some cases, organised gatherings of cars are attracting large crowds”.

The fine is two numbers, not one

The council’s announcement says anti-social drivers could receive “fines of up to £1,000”. The draft order is more precise, and the difference matters if you are handed a ticket.

  • An officer or authorised council officer may issue a fixed penalty notice of up to £100 as an alternative to prosecution.
  • Up to £1,000 is the maximum a magistrates’ court may impose, level 3 on the standard scale, and only on prosecution for failing to pay a fixed penalty or for “serious or repeated breaches”.

The order also says the council “may deploy acoustic cameras and other appropriate monitoring technologies” to gather evidence, and that this evidence may be used to support fixed penalties and prosecutions. The press release does not mention that either.

Exemptions cover the emergency services, the armed forces, highway maintenance and utility works, and anyone with “a reasonable excuse”. The burden of proving an exemption sits with the person relying on it.

Alderley Edge has been here before

Cheshire Police issued a dispersal order covering Alderley Edge in October 2025, after intelligence about a car meet planned for the weekend of 25 October. The order ran from 10am on the Saturday to 10am on the Monday and allowed officers to ban people from the area for up to 48 hours.

Chief Inspector Zoe Bowden, head of Macclesfield Local Policing Unit, said at the time that car meets were “an ongoing problem in the local area”. She added that the order “is not aimed at people meeting in their cars peacefully, simply those disrupting local communities and acting in an anti-social manner or driving dangerously”, and that enforcement could include “vehicle seizures, penalty notices, notifying insurance companies, or arrest and prosecution” (Cheshire Constabulary).

A dispersal order lasts 48 hours and needs fresh intelligence each time. A PSPO would sit there for three years.

What the recorded figures show, and what they miss

We checked the police’s own street-level data for the Prestbury and Alderley Edge neighbourhood. It logged 36 anti-social behaviour incidents in the year to July 2026, an average of three a month, with a peak of five and one month with none at all (police.uk open data, Open Government Licence).

That is a small number for an area the council is legislating about, and it is worth being clear why it is not the whole picture. Street-level data counts incidents police log as anti-social behaviour at a mapped location. Complaints about vehicle noise routinely go to the council’s own anti-social behaviour team or to 101 instead, and never appear in it. The council says its evidence comes from residents, businesses, councillors, MPs, Cheshire Constabulary and partner agencies, and that is not a source the public can count.

The four named roads are the more useful evidence in the document, because the council has put its own locations on the record.

What it means for you

If you live near any of the four named routes, this is the four weeks in which your view counts, and the council is asking for it in writing.

  • Respond through the consultation form before 5pm on Wednesday 14 October. The draft order is linked from the first page and runs to six pages.
  • Questions about the order go to the anti-social behaviour team on 0300 123 5030, which the council says is voicemail only and regularly checked, or to the consultation team at ceconsultation@cheshireeast.gov.uk.
  • If it is made, anyone who thinks the council lacked the power to make it can challenge its validity in the High Court within six weeks of the date it is made, under section 66 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.

If you are a driver, the practical change is that a gathering does not have to turn into an offence for the order to bite. Being there is enough, once an authorised officer decides the conduct of anyone present is likely to cause annoyance. Refusing a direction to leave would itself be an offence.

The A523 Silk Road and the A34 are also the two busiest routes on our Macclesfield roadworks and travel page, and town-centre parking rules are set out on our parking in Macclesfield page.

Frequently asked questions

Does this ban meeting up in cars?

No. The order applies where the conduct of someone present causes, or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm, distress, nuisance or annoyance. Cheshire Police made the same distinction when it issued a dispersal order in Alderley Edge in 2025, saying the action was “not aimed at people meeting in their cars peacefully”.

How much is the fine?

An officer can issue a fixed penalty notice of up to £100 on the spot. Up to £1,000 is the maximum a magistrates’ court can impose if you are prosecuted, for failing to pay a fixed penalty or for serious or repeated breaches.

Could I be fined just for watching?

That is what the draft says. Part 3 prohibits attending or spectating at a prohibited vehicle gathering, and a gathering can be treated as prohibited “regardless of whether any criminal offence has been committed”.

Which roads does the council name?

The A34 corridor, the A523 Silk Road in Macclesfield, the A54 Congleton bypass and Jack Mills Way in Crewe, plus unnamed “other locations across the Borough”.

When does the consultation close?

5pm on Wednesday 14 October 2026. If the order is approved it takes effect on 9 November 2026 and lasts three years.

Sources