PLANES, bikes and automobiles have left Elvington Airfield owners facing legal action over noise.

City of York Council says a noise abatement notice will be served on the owners, Elvington Park Ltd, following complaints about vehicles being tested at the airfield near York.

Sean Suckling, Principal environmental protection officer, said the order would restrict the use of motor vehicles to an "acceptable level".

He said the airfield owners could lodge an appeal against the notice, which would be served under the Environmental Protection Act. "If no appeal is lodged, we will monitor use of the airfield to check for any breaches of the notice.

"If found guilty of breaching the notice, the courts can issue a maximum fine of £20,000 against the owners

of the airfield. The courts can also issue fines for any subsequent breaches of the notice."

The decision to issue an order comes after Selby MP John Grogan said he had received numerous complaints from constituents about excessive noise from the testing of vehicles.

"If there are any clear breaches of any planning conditions or noise regulations occurring on the airfield, I have urged City of York Council to take the strongest possible enforcement action."

He claimed that, over the last few years, Elvington Park had been "very poor neighbours" to local villages.

He said: "They have vastly increased the number of testings of powerful cars on the site and other events, meaning that in the summer residents rarely have a peaceful weekend."

He also spoke out against a planning application by the company for new hangars on the airfield, claiming that he had found the company to be "something of a shadowy organisation with whom it was very difficult to have a straight conversation."

Elvington Parish Council claim there had been "dreadful noise intrusion" from the airfield in recent weeks, caused by car trials or motor bike racing, and aerobatics by a light aircraft.

An Elvington Park spokesman said it did not agree that an enforcement order was justified, and a meeting was imminent with the council to discuss the issues of concern.

He said he did not believe there had been any increase in vehicle testing; if anything, there would have been a decrease over the winter months.

He also claimed Mr Grogan had made "out-of-date, uninformed assertions and negative comments" over the planning application, and added that the company had always been available to meet with MP and answer queries "whenever approached in a reasonable way."

Updated: 10:43 Thursday, March 17, 2005