POLICE are threatening to seize the cars of "cruisers" making the lives of people in Blackwood a misery in a new "zero tolerance" crackdown.

Officers are warning young drivers to stop cruising or face having their cars seized and a £140 bill to get them back.

Extra police will soon be patrolling the streets of Blackwood with the aim of ridding the town of the car cruisers causing a public nuisance.

The long-running problem of so-called boy-racers gathering in car parks, making excessive noise and cruising through the main street had started to ease in Blackwood - but a new group of cruisers has appeared in the town.

Now police are planning another operation, to take place shortly, and officers stress they will use new powers to seize offenders' vehicles.

The cruisers would then have to pay £140 to get their cars back.

Sergeant Rhydwyn Harris, of Blackwood police, said there have been a number of complaints about nuisance behaviour, such as careless driving and loud music.

He said: "We are adopting a zero tolerance approach towards these cruisers. If you come here and engage in illegal behaviour, you will be dealt with firmly with the full force of the law."

Inspector Heather Jones, of Blackwood police, pictured, said the clampdown will involve extra patrols in the town centre and warning notices being handed out.

"The situation had eased a lot but it has crept back up again," she said.

"It is not as bad as it was but we have identified a new group of people and we want to educate them, that cruising is affecting the quality of life for local people.

"We will give out warning notices at first, about the effects they are having.

"We had a positive response to our operation last time and we are confident the same thing will happen again."

But she added if the cruisers continued after a warning, then their cars could be seized.

During the last operation, several warnings were given to the cruisers and some were reported under the Road Traffic Act. Some motorcycles were seized, but no cars.

* Police are also cracking down on cruisers gathering at Abergavenny bus station every evening and some racing through lanes near the Sugar Loaf mountain and Llandegveth.