Ross-on-Wye Police have received several complaints recently about ‘Boy Racers’ in the town whose cars have been modified, and given louder exhausts, which can be anti-social and illegal in the eyes of the police, but do not breach strict MOT?guidelines.

Police Constable, Richard Barradale-Smith, told the Ross Gazette: “The MOT testers should be failing them if they are ‘clearly unreasonably’ louder than another car of this type, but they are not.”

MOT testers are not given strict guidelines on the amount of noise a car should make, there is not a decibel level to remain under and it comes down to the testers common sense or opinion.

The Ross Gazette spoke to several garages who offer MOT testing to find out about the process.

Victoria Bennett, of Steve Bennett Garage Services, said: “The MOT is more concerned with emissions, we have no specialist equipment to test how loud a vehicle is.”

Whether the car is too loud or not is left to the interpretation of the tester, making the process a subjective test.

For the full story, please see this week’s edition of the Ross Gazette.