Councillors have met with car enthusiasts in an attempt to find them a home, as the cost of keeping them out of one car park climbs to £12,000.

Security was stepped up at Rochester Riverside after hundreds gathered at the multi-storey, next to the new railway station, for a car meet last month, with reports of some antisocial behaviour.

Now a leading councillor has revealed this is costing £2,000 every weekend. The bill is being shared by the police and the council.

But councillors are now working with car clubs to find them a home in Medway – where organised meets can take place which are properly insured, stewarded and patrolled by police.

Cllr Adrian Gulvin, who is chairman of the Medway Community Safety Partnership, and Cllr Andrew Mackness, who represents River ward, where some of the meets have taken place, have spoken to two car clubs.

They are looking at a number of sites where the meets could take place, but Cllr Gulvin would not tell the Messenger where these are until more concrete plans are in place.

He said: “I think they [the car clubs] were quite surprised at the outcome of the meeting. I think they perhaps thought they were just going to get the answer ‘no’.

“We are taking a pragmatic approach with this. It is no good trying to ban all of this. If you stop them going somewhere, you will just push it somewhere else.

“We are hoping to come up with a suitable car park where they can gather but they will have to get public liability insurance, it will have to be properly stewarded and they will have to ensure that there is no mess left behind for the tax payer to pay for the cost of clearing up.

"It is no good trying to ban all of this. If you stop them going somewhere, you will just push it somewhere else" - Cllr Gulvin

“We will allocate a space and we would expect pre-notification each time an event took place. We would also like to see a small police presence.

“We are not promising anything but we are saying we are going to give it a try. But we need to do our homework and the ground work. We aim to find somewhere that it not too close to residents and where it won’t cause a problem.”

The next step is for the car clubs to visit some of the potential sites with council officers, then the councillors will hold another meeting.

Cllr Gulvin added: “Trying to keep them out of the multi-storey in Rochester at the weekends is costing £2,000, that cost is being shared by the police and the council.

“We are also installing rumble strips, like mini speed bumps, to stop any antisocial driving. The majority of the people who go to these car meets are sensible but there is a very small minority that want to show off. Even when I visited the Medway City Estate, when there was a heavy police presence, there were one or two drivers doing silly things.”

Police were called to an unofficial car meet at Rochester Riverside multi-storey on Saturday, January 14, following complaints.

Officers reported some antisocial driving and other car park users said the atmosphere was intimidating. As a result, police broke up the meet.

The following day a car club, which had not been present at the Saturday meet, held an organised gathering. Police were informed beforehand and there were no incidents. It is the organisers of this second meet that are working with councillors.

Organised meets take place at Strood Retail Park and other sites in The Towns without problems. But residents are unhappy with anti-social driving on the Medway City Estate, where an accident injured 15 bystanders at a performance car gathering last year.