NEW technology designed to slam the brakes on engine-revving 'boy racers' is being trialled in Keighley.

A state-of-the-art camera has been installed in the town to detect excessively noisy vehicles.

Keighley is the first of four areas nationally chosen to pilot the equipment.

Noise levels are recorded via several microphones, and images are captured of 'offending' vehicles.

The package of evidence can then be used by the police to fine drivers.

Motorists driving noisy, modified cars and using vehicles with illegal exhausts have long been a problem in the town.

The latest move is welcomed by senior community figures.

Keighley's MP, Robbie Moore, says he lobbied the Government Transport Minister earlier this year for the town to be included in the £300,000 initiative – and was delighted it had been selected.

He added: "This announcement is huge news for Keighley and a definitive step towards quieter streets across our town.

"For far too long, our streets have been used as a race track by drivers with illegally-modified cars – a complete and utter nuisance to our town – and so it is brilliant that lobbying the Government hard on this issue has paid off.

"This new noise-detecting technology will provide the police with the tools and evidence they need to take action against drivers who flout noise laws.

"Constituents are quite rightly fed up with the disruption these drivers have been causing to our area, especially at night."

The technology, which has been sited in Fell Lane, is also welcomed by Bradford Council.

Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw – the portfolio holder for regeneration, planning and transport – said: "I am delighted that Bradford district has managed to secure the trial of noise cameras. Anti-social driving causes real upset and harm. People should not have to put up with excessively noisy vehicles in their communities.

"We welcome the development of technology that could, in the future, help identify drivers who wilfully ignore noise laws and allow enforcement action to be taken against them.

"Hopefully the data collected in the trial goes some way to providing proper legislative governance for a wider UK roll out of the technology.

"We are pleased that we are also answering the needs of the community by hosting this trial."

Keighley town councillor Julie Adams, whose ward includes Fell Lane, says the installation of the camera is "fantastic" news.

But she feels the equipment would have been more effective if its precise location, publicised on Facebook, had remained undisclosed.