A strip of road behind Karamu High School that has been a magnet for boy racers and "unsavoury behaviour" is to be locked off overnight following a request from residents.
Hastings District Council this week approved the use of an electronic gate across Beatson Rd, adjacent to the school, so the less populated end of the road could be shut to traffic between 6pm and 6am.
Residents in the area have complained about dangerous driving, vandalism and burglaries for some time and the council acknowledged issues with "drunk and unruly" people congregating in the area would not be resolved if it installed speed bumps along the road.
"There's been a whole lot of unsavoury behaviour and activity going on in that quiet piece of the road, everybody that lived around there wanted it closed, so that's what we did," Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule said.
An electronic gate is also used on Te Mata Peak Rd to keep traffic out of the area overnight but Mr Yule said he did not believe there would be many other situations where a gate across a road would provide a workable solution to similar boy racer problems.
The idea worked where there were only a small number of residents in the affected area, he said.
In Beatson Rd there were only three homes behind the gated area and the residents were able to drive out overnight and let visitors through the gate.
"I can't see a lot of other uses for it because generally you've got a lot more people that are involved," Mr Yule said. "If you want to shut off another road and there were 30 people living on it, I doubt that's ever going to be a flier."