AN ILLEGAL motorbike circuit constructed in 2002 should get retrospective planning permission, council officers have recommended.

The Essex MX motocross course off the A414 between North Weald Market and Hastingwood has attracted complaints from neighbours concerned about noise, traffic congestion and pollution caused by bikes kicking dust up into the air.

Despite two previous applications being turned down, staff at Epping Forest District Council have said the latest submission should be granted following pledges from organisers to limit their activities.

North Weald Parish Council, North Weald Bassett and District Rural Preservation Society and eight neighbours have all objected to the plans, but 216 letters of support have also been sent to the authority.

The district council has said Essex MX can operate as long as it complies with a number of conditions, including a limit on noise and lighting, restricting race times to between 10am and 4pm three days a week, and an order that no actual races can take place there.

A council report said the noise from the site was not “excessive” and there there is no other track of its kind within 50km of North Weald.

It says: “Given the lack of alternative facilities within a reasonable distance of the site it is accepted there is a need for a facility of the type proposed within the general locality”.

Councillors on the authority's area planning subcommittee east panel will make a decision on the plans at a public meeting tomorrow night (Wednesday June 2).