BUSINESS owners have joined the fight to reopen a popular off-road motorbike course after revealing 200 bikers use their grounds as a makeshift stunt course.

Business owners in Luckyn Lane, Pipps Hill, Basildon say their industrial estate is regularly flooded by bikers late every Wednesday night for huge meetings.

Footage obtained by the Echo shows the extent of the trouble.

More than a hundred videos posted on social networking site Instagram show young people and adults lining the street as riders pull wheelies at high speed for tens of metres.

Another video shows police watching on while a dune buggy pulls a series of donuts.

Business owners say the police need to help deter the bikers and urged Basildon Council to open Action Park.

One business owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, said: “I understand why they do it here, it’s regularly safe because the road is well-lit and there’s no traffic.

“But the tyre marks in the morning are awful, there’s hundreds of them. It looks like Brands Hatch and there is so much litter it’s untrue.

“The only way they could be prevented from coming here is if the police regularly patrol the area.”

Another business owner added: “Action Park shouldn’t be shut. We have seen this happen more and more since it was closed down.

Action Park, at Bonville Farm, Wickford, was forced to shut after Basildon Council issued an enforcement notice in May 2015 against the park.

The site had been operating on green belt land without planning permission for seven years prior to its closure.

Kevin Blake, deputy leader of Basildon Council and councillor for leisure, said it would take an “awful lot of persuading” for him to side with Action Park bosses.

He said: “The park was opened up on green belt land, we’ve got a green belt land policy and when you show a chink in the armour it can open the council up to all sorts.

“If anything should be built on green belt it should be housing. I don’t even want housing built on that land, but with a heavy heart we may have to vote to do so in the future.

“If I was sitting on the planning committee it would take me an awful lot of persuading to allow this park to go ahead.

“Should the owners want to speak to me directly about this, the door is wide open.”

On Friday, park owner Philip McCaul claimed closure of his site has caused motocross riders to set up race courses on public roads.

Expressing his concern, he said: “This racing up and down the street is insanity.

“These people need somewhere to go.”

The Echo contacted Essex Police for comment but had not received a response at the time of going to press.