A RESTRICTION on young drivers hiring powerful supercars they cannot control has been ordered by Blackburn with Darwen Council.

It follows a series of accidents and injuries across East Lancashire caused by inexperienced motorists behind the wheel of high-powered vehicles.

Backing the motion at the council forum, neighbourhoods boss Cllr Arshid Mahmood said the move supported the Lancashire Telegraph’s ‘Stop the Madness’ campaign urging tougher sentences for dangerous and irresponsible drivers.

Chief executive Harry Catherall has urged government ministers to introduce legislation restricting young and inexperienced drivers hiring high-powered vehicles by the day or driving supercars hired by others for short periods.

The motion follows a one recently passed by Pendle Council.

Burnley Council leader Cllr Mark Townsend is considering a similar move after problems in the borough, notably in April when a hired £240,000 white Ferrari 458 Spider crashed into a garden wall in Abel Street.

Bastwell councillor Shaukat Hussain said: “This is about improving road safety.

“We have had problems with young people hiring supercars they cannot control and causing injuries and deaths in my ward, across Blackburn with Darwen and East Lancashire.”

Cllr Mahmood said: “This is a big problem and links into the ‘Stop the Madness’ campaign.

“It is a problem with young South Asian drivers hiring these supercars around Islamic and other festivals.”

However Conservative councillor Imtiaz Ali opposed the motion and said: “This is unworkable and unenforceable.”

Former chairman of the Lancashire Council of Mosques and Queen’s Park councillor Salim Mulla said: “As an ethnic minority we have a responsibility to so something about this, particularly the hiring these high-powered vehicles around our two Eid festivals.”