Federated Farmers – Boy racers highlight threat to rural community

Federated Farmers Taranaki is concerned the increasing illegal congregations of boy-racers in rural areas has heightened the threat of crime to people and livestock.

“Farmers are increasingly frustrated and disappointed by what appears to little or no action taken against the boy-racer behaviour,” Federated Farmers Taranaki president Mark Hooper says..

Bylaws prohibiting boy-racers in urban areas is shifting the issue into rural areas, where the lack of police resource means nothing is done.

The recent sentencing of a local farmer over an incident with boy racers shows the levels of frustration out there, Mark says.

“While we wouldn’t recommend any farmer taking matters into their own hands with unruly individuals and groups, we understand farmers’ anxiety about their personal safety, traffic safety, harm and stress to livestock, and damage to property.”

This is an unwanted perverse outcome of government cutbacks.

“The lack of rural policing in this situation is forcing otherwise law-abiding farmers being labelled as ‘the bad guy’.”