FOREST business magnate Brian Bennett is playing a cheeky soft shoe shuffle with council planners over two motocross tracks he built at Yorkley Court Farm.

In December, Forest of Dean District Council issued Mr Bennett with a stern warning that unless he stopped holding events on the land he would face legal action.

The enforcement order gave him a deadline of March 3 this year to comply - or else face the full wrath of the law.

Mr Bennett has neatly sidestepped the threat of court action by applying for retrospective planning permission to stage motocross competitions on the site.

The council planning committee is now bound to consider the application at its next meeting on May 8.

Planning officer Tony Pope has urged the committee to throw out the application but the elected committee members have the right to overrule his recommendations.

In a report to the committee, Mr Pope, said the members have to weigh up the advantages of the scheme, which could include the economic benefit of visitors spending money locally, with the

The racetracks were built without planning permission and residents have complained about noise nuisance from motorcyclists using the site.

Two local residents Pete and Dawn Large said they have undertaken research on motocross tracks and said that most tracks are located next to motorways, busy A roads or industrial estates which all have high ambient noise and added that they couldn’t find any tracks with planning permission that are so close to hundreds of residential dwellings.