AN HORRIFIC weekend scrambling accident resulted in a 33 year-old Hindley Green man suffering serious head injuries.

And as builder Mark Aldred, of Atherton Road, lay in intensive care, evergreen moto-cross rider and Leigh Motor Cycle Club chairman Brian Hayes made a stinging attack on the council's new get-tough policy against motorcyclists practising on the Plank Lane site.

But the council dismissed suggestions that the authority's clampdown had in any way contributed to Sunday's accident.

As we went to press Mr Aldred was "critical but stable" in intensive care at Bolton Royal Hospital. He had been airlifted by helicopter after his machine and one ridden by 16 year-old Scott Edwards, of Dorset Road, Shakerley, collided.

Mr Aldred suffered head injuries and a fractured right wrist in the crash which left the teenager needing hospital treatment for shoulder bruising.

This week Mr Hayes, who runs B & D Motorcycles in Atherton, said: "The council has been monitoring activities and brought in police to harass anyone riding on this land. The police don't want to be there.

"I have been practising there for 40 years. But the environmental health people have started to video people and take registration numbers.

"Consequently instead of everyone congregating on the car park off Plank Lane, they are coming in from all corners of the site. No wonder accidents happen.

"The riders enjoy themselves and riding bikes is a lot better than glue-sniffing or taking drugs down a back street.

"The council could help by designating an area where the bikes could be ridden and perhaps place arrows to make sure everyone is riding in the same direction.

"The authority just doesn't seem to want to get involved in a positive way," he added.

Chief Insp Alex Woolley warned: "This highlights the danger of this type of unofficial activity. The scenario could have been much worse."

The machines involved in the crash, a 426cc Yamaha enduro bike and an 80cc Kawasaki schoolboy scrambler, were impounded by police.

Wigan's Deputy Director of Environmental Health, Ashley Crumbley, said: "I am sorry somebody has been seriously hurt but motorcycling is prohibited on this site and is a criminal offence. Any suggestion that the local authority is responsible for the accident is absolute rubbish."

He claimed signs prohibiting use of vehicles on the land had been torn down. Those who ignored the warnings, he said, faced prosecution and a maximum fine of £5,000.

So far two riders have been officially cautioned pending further action, said Mr Crumbley, who claimed he and his officers had been on site when machines had been deliberately ridden at them.

"We have received complaints from residents and from pedestrians who have been faced with machines hurtling by at up to 70 miles per hour. These are ordinary people whose Sundays are being ruined.

To apply for formal use on the site would need someone to put in a formal planning application and you don't need to be Einstein to judge what the residents' reaction would be."