Police have used emergency powers to close a busy Croydon road in a bid to stop a controversial street race through the town centre.

The race, dubbed the ‘Croydon Cruise’, regularly sees up to 200 motorists in souped-up cars hit the tarmac in Imperial Way on Friday nights, often attracting crowds as large as 400 people.

But safety concerns and complaints from local businesses have led Croydon police and Croydon Council to shut the road over the last two weekends in an attempt to stop public roads becoming a racetrack.

RELATED: Imperial Way cruise returns despite dispersal order

Croydon’s borough commander Andy Tarrant said: “We’ve had problems in Imperial Way with cars and motorbikes turning up.

“We have had a couple of accidents there, there is a potential for people getting injured and that is our overriding concern.

“Our other issue is we are getting a significant number of complaints from local businesses and residents about the antisocial nature of it.

“We held an operation down there last week to disrupt it and the council put in some calmers last Friday that meant that we could close the road off and not allow access.

“But what we are looking for is a longer term solution, because it is such a big commitment of resources, we are looking to design out the issues – so there are things we can do to make it less susceptible like traffic calming measures.”

The closure, which started two weeks ago, will once again be in force this Friday night.

Aside from speeding through public roads, motorists play loud music from sound systems in the boot of their car, disrupting homes and businesses in the area, Chief Supt Tarrant said.

Cruises are held most Friday nights, initially in Purley Way, before racing along Imperial Way.

The meeting has been the cause of disputes for years, with car enthusiasts claiming the races are social events despite businesses and police insisting they are dangerous.

Cllr Stuart King, cabinet member for transport and environment, said the cruise was “extremely antisocial” and posed a risk to everyone in the area.

He said: “It is extremely antisocial behaviour that is dangerous to the cruise participants themselves and to others in the area.

“It is a very dangerous activity to be driving vehicles up and down a road in a way that it’s not intended for.

“We have had a request from the police to support their enforcement activity and we are more than happy to support that.”

Cllr King said the council would be looking at long term measures to prevent the cruise, adding: “Our immediate priority and focus has been supporting the police in this operation, which I understand has been successful in disrupting the cruise.

“At this stage we are still working out what they [solutions] might be and what will be most effective in these circumstances.

“We want to look at the experience of how the cruise operates over the course of the five weeks we have this emergency closure power in place and we are obviously hopeful that the cruise takes itself elsewhere.”

Police attempted to shut down the cruise in 2012 but had little success, with car enthusiasts continuing to hit the streets.

At the time the area was subject to a dispersal order, which was first granted in October 2010.

But police reported numbers of racers increasing again by March 2012.

The order expired in September that year.

Cllr Andrew Pelling, Labour member for Waddon ward where the cruise takes place, said: “We need to find a sustainable solution to have this event take place safely away from where it puts participants, pedestrians and people either working on or visiting the industrial estate at risk.

“Although the police are enforcing they are limited in what they can do and it is requiring high levels of resources, which is unsustainable in the longer term.

“The council are therefore wanting to look at what options there are to prevent the activity from taking place. “Speed humps, chicanes, road closures and other permanent measures are possible but their merits need to be properly assessed and will likely take months to get permanently approved.”

Chief Supt Tarrant encouraged people to go to a regulated cruise event, adding: “You shouldn’t be holding these types of things on public roads.

“We know that there are regulated events around, we want people to go to those and not use public roads.”