RESIDENTS say their lives are being made miserable by car cruisers “tearing around” a cinema carpark through the night.

Locals say drivers have been meeting at the Showcase Cinema in Coatbridge for the past two weeks and their evenings are disrupted by cars engines revving, handbrake turns and screeching brakes, sometimes until 3am in the morning.

This dramatic  image of the cars was captured by Jay Littlejohn using drone technology.

Car cruising is where drivers meet to race, show off souped up vehicles or perform performing dangerous stunts. Police say that while cruising itself not illegal, they would urge people not to take part.

Residents fear the anti-social racket won’t stop until cinemas re-open - the Scottish Government has given a date of July 15 - but have also called on Showcase Cinemas to take action.

When contacted, Police Scotland said they attended on July 1 and the drivers moved on.

Eileen McGovern, who lives nearby and is part of Kirkwood Residents Association, said residents are repeatedly calling the non-emergency police number but the problem is continuing.

She said: “For the last couple of week, from what we can gather - I’m part of the Kirkwood Tenants Association - and we have set up a group online , from the comments it seems to be some sort of car club because it’s becoming apparent that there are different people down there and different age groups and different types of cars.

“The word cruising crops up quite a lot.  I suspect they pick the Showcase because they perhaps generally meet in Strathclyde Park but with that being closed, they’ve had to find another open space.

“With the cinema closed they have a huge space and it’s close to the motorway links, the M8 and the M73.

“They are tearing about the carpark, screeching, doing handbrake turns. They start to congregate at 4 or 5pm and the other night they were still going at 2am.

“The police said they would send something to attend but we don’t know if they are coming out or what they are actually doing because this has been going on for two weeks.”

A spokeswoman for Police Scotland said: "Police Scotland received reports of anti social behaviour after a large group of vehicles were within Showcase Leisure Park, Coatbridge on Wednesday 1 July.  On arrival of officers the vehicles moved on."