DANGEROUS materials have been dumped on land used by motorcycling youngsters, writes Reg Little.

The teenagers had wanted man-made jumps on a site in Kidlington they were given for scrambling. But parents were appalled to discover that riders were racing over mounds filled with a dangerous mixture of glass, wire and metals.

Now, with the land fenced off and surrounded by "danger" signs, angry parents want to know how a teenagers' riding area was allowed to become an unsupervised tip.

And they are demanding reassurances that there was no asbestos among the concrete, slate and wire buried on the site. The saga began when Kidlington Parish Council was given permission by Oxfordshire County Council to allow young people to use the land near the Sainsbury's roundabout. The parish council agreed to requests from parents for jumps to be added and it brought in Yarnton contractors Sheehan Haulage.

The county council ordered a Contaminated Land Assessment of the site after concerns were raised. It found brick, wood, concrete, tarmac, glass, plastic, metal, clay pipe, tile, granite, roadstone, siltstone, wire, textiles, slag, ash, slate, polystyrene and a petrol can.

Simon Nix, whose 18-year-old son Ed used the site, said: "It was meant to get kids off other dangerous waste grounds. Instead they allowed glass, wire and God-knows-what to be buried near the surface." Chief county council property officer Neil Monaghan denied the presence of asbestos and said the waste was low-risk. He added: "We are expecting Sheehan to remove it."

Chris Sheehan, managing director of Sheehan's, claimed the parish council was trying to blame his company for unauthorised tipping as the council did not have permission to make the mounds when it asked the firm to carry out the work.

Story date: Friday 25 February

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