AN application for permission for two racetracks at Yorkley has been submitted to the Forest of Dean District Council.

The racetracks at Yorkley Court Farm were operated without planning permission and the council took action last summer.

Now landowner, Forest businessman Brian Bennett, has submitted an application for ‘retrospective’ permission.

The application is for use on 42 days a year on weekends and Bank Holidays between 9am and 6pm from March to October.

Local people have already submitted objections to the scheme because of noise from the bikes.

But noise tests, carried out on behalf of the applicant, concluded there was no significant disturbance from the bikes and no specific mitigation measures were needed.

According to background information in the noise report the north track is used for 14 events a year with competitors in seven groups which each has three races and up to 40 motorcycles per race.

The south track has 28 events with the seven groups and 10 motorbikes in each of the three races for the group.

The tracks are not used on the same days.

The noise report concludes: “None of the observed noise exposures suggest that they are likely to cause small changes in behaviour and/or attitude for local residents (e.g. turning up volume of television; speaking more loudly; where there is no alternative ventilation, having to close windows for some of the time because of the noise), or that they have the potential for sleep disturbance, or that they would affect the acoustic character of the area such that there is a perceived change in the quality of life.

“Therefore, no specific noise mitigation measures would be required and there are no reasons for refusing planning permission on grounds of noise or loss of amenity.”

In objecting to the scheme, one resident wrote: “We have already endured through the summer of 2017 the persistent and monotonous noise intrusion associated with it.”

People living nearby also criticised the council over the notification process, saying that notices went to just three properties, including Yorkley Court Farm.

One resident wrote: “I would firstly like to express my disappointment in the way this has been handled with respect of notifying the local community.

“If it wasn’t for the fact that the occupant of one of only three addresses (once of those being the empty Yorkley Court farmhouse owned by the applicant) let me know they had received written notification about this application, I and many other residents close to this site would be, and many still are, totally unaware of it.”

Comments on the plan – reference number P1949/17/FUL – can be e-mailed to [email protected] to arrive by Thursday, January 25.