I refer to your article about organisers of the Bampton Shirt Race being ordered by West Oxfordshire District Council to remove roadside signs (Oxford Mail, May 21).

We, members of North Berks Motor Cycle Club, are victims of the Vale of White Horse District Council.

After 41 years of running motorcycle grass track racing around the Abingdon area, some of which were world championship events, we were told if we put up advertising boards again, we would be prosecuted. Alternatively, we could apply for planning permission, with a fee of £95.

If the planning was refused, you lost your money.

So our event was not run on May Day this year.

Over the years, we have donated money to Abingdon St John Ambulance and other charities.

If you talk to the council, this counts for nothing.

Funfairs, circuses and estate agents can put up posters and boards all over the place.

I thought we belonged to the EU?

If you go to other EU countries like France, Holland and Germany, events are painted on the roads in large letters.

We sympathise with the Bampton Shirt Race organisers.

I hope they do not give up, like we have, otherwise the old folk of Bampton are the losers, not the bloody-minded council.

John Lightfoot

North Berks Motor Cycle Club