The police have written warning letters to ‘boy racers’ running amok in the icy weather in Princetown over the past week.

The perennial problem flared up again on Wednesday, January 30, the night before heavy snow swept into the village, when the roads were already treacherously icy.

Steve Cox, clerk of Dartmoor Forest Parish Council, said: ‘The village has once again been blighted by boy racers coming in and using the conditions to skid up and down and do handbrake turns in the ice and snow. It is a real anti-social behaviour issue and leaves people feeling afraid in their own homes.’

Mark Sloman, sector inspector for Devon and Cornwall Police, said registration numbers of troublemakers had been noted down and the cars owners written to.

He said problems had also been caused in the Princetown area by daytrippers blocking farmers fields in their haste to get onto the moor in the snow. ‘They are showing no consideration for people who live and work here,’ he added.