A CAMPAIGN against plans to build a motocross track at Odiham has received a major boost after a Hart council officer recommended that planning permission be refused.

The proposal for land at Down Farm, off Ford Lane, was submitted by Cllr Robert Benford, former leader of Hart District Council, who said the motorcycle sports park would help secure the future of the farm.

However, the plans prompted a five-parish-council coalition against the application, and Hart council has received a 400-signature petition and almost 500 letters of objection from residents of nearby villages.

In a report set to be considered by the council's development control committee next week, planning officer Margaret Beauchamp said the motocross track would be an unwarranted intrusion into the countryside.

After considering objections to the proposal from the Council for the Protection of Rural England and Hampshire Constabulary, she concluded that the proposal would "generate a great deal of noise, be harmful to neighbours, be visually intrusive and add to the level of traffic turning at a substandard road junction."

Colonel Johnny Fielding, chairman of South Warnborough Parish Council and spokesman for the protestors, said: "The officers have put up a very good case for refusal based on planning grounds."

Col Fielding added that representatives of the parishes of South Warnborough, Odiham, Long Sutton and Well, and Upton Grey would be attending the committee meeting "in strength" to make their objections clear.

However, Cllr Benford, who has launched a website at www.odihammotopark.com promoting the plan, said he was "disappointed" with the officer's report.

He claimed: "It has omitted a lot of positive things that should be there."

Cllr Benford, who does not intend to speak at the meeting, said that a planning consultant acting on his behalf would argue the case for accepting the plans at the meeting, set to be held at The Harlington Centre, Fleet, on Wednesday, May 28.