The Army is to give a local charity 5,000 to say sorry for creating so much noise earlier in the summer, writes Madeleine Pennell.

Soldiers raised the cash by holding a similar event to the one that caused so much trouble.

A weekend of rally car and motorcycle racing on the Dalton Army Barracks airfield runway at Abingdon in June was so noisy that hundreds of people signed a petition to get future events banned.

One of the hottest weekends of the year was ruined for villagers at Cothill, Dry Sandford and Wootton.

The weekend before, another car and motorcycle racing event CARnival passed off with few problems. It is the proceeds from CARnival that the barracks wants to give to charity.

Maj Roger Walls, the station officer, said the barracks wanted to give a cheque to a local charity the Stowford House centre for people with learning difficulties to make up for the inconvenience they caused to the community.

Normally all the money raised by the annual races would go to the Army Benevolent Fund, but this year the proceeds are being split equally with Stowford House. The barrack's new station commander, Col David Shoueson, will hand the money over tomorrow at Stowford House in Faringdon Road, Shippon.

Maj Walls said: "As a result of the noise we caused in the summer, we have a rather generous cheque to give to Stowford House.

"We chose it because it is just down the road from us and over the years it has become our main local charity."

Bill Hart, chairman of the Friends of Stowford House, said: "This is a worthwhile amount of money.

"I don't know what we are going to spend it on yet but the kind of things we buy are a minibus to take people out on trips and new curtains and furniture to make the house nice.

We provide money for holidays all the things that improve their quality of life that cannot be obtained through social services.

"The barracks has always been very good to us.

"They give us a lot of help. They can be relied upon to find soldiers to help with transport or to give us tables for events.

If we ask for things they are quick to respond."