A COMMUNITY fears council signs are being ignored due to an incident that followed anti-social behaviour during a BMX race. 

Further to the glass bottle being thrown on race night, the BMX Club in Braintree experienced a similar incident. 

A metal pole was thrown over a hedge at about 7pm on Wednesday, June 21, narrowly missing one of the riders who was in the area with his family getting a drink between races.

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Fortunately, no one was hurt.

The head coach of BMX Club, Julian Allen, said: "We had positioned parents adjacent to the area of last week's incident so we could see anyone coming, but this happened just out of eyesight.

"On arrival at the track on Thursday, it was obvious that the track had suffered damage from electric motorbikes and radio control cars yet again and the club's volunteers had to spend two hours prepping the site and removing litter before racing could start.

"The signage provided by Braintree Council is completely ignored even with 'security' on site."

The club has plans to put up fences to protect the community facility and keep users safe.

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Mr Allen said: "As an active club of 219 participants, who provide free facilities and activities for the community as well as bringing in commerce to local businesses, we are gravely concerned for the future when the development adjacent to the site begins to fill, and the population grows massively in the area with no additional provision for leisure.

"A new site and appropriate parking, potentially camping and a larger track are needed for the club to expand and offer the community and the wider populous an opportunity to get involved with an Olympic sport, and to be able to bring in large scale national and international events that the town have been privileged to enjoy in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2017."

A Braintree Council spokesman said: "We are aware of the recent incident and are continuing to collaborate with our partners to ensure that the reports of anti-social behaviour in the area are being addressed.

"Our Community Safety Partnership allows us to share resources and expertise with our partners, including regular meetings, joined planning and coordinated actions to create safer communities and neighbourhoods."