Electronic ears will be listening to the engine revving and wheel spinning generated by boy-racers who congregate on Great Yarmouth's Golden Mile in ever greater numbers over the summer.

The monitoring operation is being mounted by Great Yarmouth Borough Council in response to complaints from residents who say they cannot sleep and have to endure noisy antics until the early hours.

Young drivers showing off their souped-up vehicles, braking loudly and playing car stereos excessively loud have been a problem for decades, drawing complaints from households who say they are plagued by disturbances.

Previous crackdowns have involved poster campaigns, patrols, vehicle checks and a red-card anti-social driving campaign.

The latest purge has been triggered by David Willcocks of Frank Stone Court who says high-speed races are putting lives in danger with more than 100 cars gathering and playing 'symphonies' on their horns on Sundays.

And while a new road layout had helped households in South Beach Parade, the problem had shifted to the area between Dickens Avenue and Queens Road, annoying more than 60 people in sheltered accommodation.

Disabled Mr Willcocks, said the problem was getting worse with residents having to endure disturbances every night of the week, peaking on Sundays.

'They race along the seafront at high speed and sit in the car park doing wheel spins and even put stuff on the road to make them do it even better. They are here from February to December, the only time we don't get them is in the winter if there is snow and ice. They start with just a few gathering from 8pm and I have known it go on until 2.30am in the morning.

'There is one particular car that lights something in its exhaust that causes explosions like gun fire.2

The 62-year-old's complaints to police and council resulted in a meeting on Tuesday he hopes will lead to action that will curb their activities.

A spokesman for Great Yarmouth Borough Council said: 'Great Yarmouth Borough Council, along with Norfolk Constabulary, County Council Highways, ward councillors and local residents have worked together for a number of years to tackle the problem caused by some car enthusiasts in the South Beach Parade and St Nicholas Car Park area.

'Such problems have included noise, littering, dangerous driving and general anti-social behaviour. This multi-agency approach is being used to tackle the issues currently being experienced by residents of Frank Stone Court. Officers and ward councillors recently met with the police and local residents to try to find a possible solution. Any solution must be viable and supported by all involved.

'A follow-up meeting will be held in the autumn. In the meantime, environmental health officers are conducting noise monitoring at relevant times to determine whether the noise caused by any one of these individuals is significant enough to constitute a 'statutory nuisance'. If so, that individual can be served with a noise abatement notice, which if breached could lead to prosecution in the courts.'