We live near Buckingham Palace...dangerous boy racer car meets are ruining our lives

The footage (click to play above) was taken during one of the car meets that has been blighting the lives of residents in an exclusive neighbourhood - less than a mile from Buckingham Palace. Fed-up locals claim the "reckless" drivers turn up every Sunday at around midnight in St James' Waterloo Place, and perform ‘dangerous’ stunts during the night.

Residents say petrolheads spend hours doing doughnuts, revving their "souped-up engines", and creating noise ‘so loud it sounds like an explosion’. Those living in the area say their lives have been made a misery - as they struggle to sleep and have been left stressed by the driving which they say is "an accident waiting to happen". Others, who have filmed the meets so they can report them to the police, have been "intimidated" by the organisers, they claim .

Drivers wear balaclavas and obscure their number plates

Residents say the drivers "know what they are doing is illegal" as they obscure their cars' number plates and often wear hoods and balaclavas. And now, locals are campaigning in the hopes of restoring funding to police road teams so something can be done before "someone gets seriously hurt".

Angry residents describe the meets as ‘horrific’. Anne Mannion said: "My bed shakes. It feels like an airplane is taking off. I mean - there are hundreds of supercars as well as cars which have had their engines 'souped-up'. It's just horrific. We have all types of people living in this building. Elderly people, families with children, professionals who have to get up early in the morning.”

Cars do doughnuts and burnouts...they could explode

Sanzhar Abishev, another local resident, is also worried about the meets - which he says pose a danger to the community. The 31-year-old said: "They drive very recklessly. They do doughnuts at high speed. They do burnouts and their engines overheat. There is the danger of them exploding. They block entire lanes of traffic - so there's no way ambulances can get through. And they're out of control near hundreds of spectators. It's an accident waiting to happen.”

Mr Abishev, a local business owner, said the meets are ‘very well planned’, and when police arrive, they ‘mount the pavements’ to flee. He said: "They're not done on a whim. They can happen every single weekend. They usually start late but sometimes start as early as 4 or 5pm - and can go on until past 2 or 3am.

"Before, the local police officers were incredibly helpful. They were throwing down spikes and blocking off the area. Drivers were being caught and having fines issued. Although a lot of drivers do remove their number plates - which is of course an offence in itself.”

Earlier this month, four drivers were issued with fixed penalty notices after being caught on camera performing burnouts and revving their engines at one such late-night car meet. Some of the cars found guilty included a highly tuned BMW coupe and a Mercedes C63 AMG worth almost £100k, Westminster City Council (WCC) said. The drivers were caught after they triggered acoustic noise cameras.

Dangerous driving ‘not welcome’

Commenting on the car meets, Cllr Aicha Less, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Children and Public Protection at Westminster City Council, said: "Driving like this is not only unwelcome in Westminster, but also incredibly dangerous. We often notice an increase of this behaviour during the summer, but we will continue to work throughout the year to deter this from happening. We have a zero-tolerance for antisocial driving, so I welcome the latest round of fines and hope by working with our partners we can identify others.”

The Met Police was also contacted for comment.