TALKS have been held with top Formula One company TAG McLaren over the future of the Lydden Racing Circuit.

Under the terms of planning permission granted by Dover District Council some years ago, the company had been due to start work on the redevelopment of the circuit next month.

But McLaren boss Ron Dennis has asked the council to approve a change in the legal agreement delaying the start of the works for another two years. Villagers who have complained about the noise from the racing at the circuit for many years are concerned that this will now continue until the end of 2004.

Cllr Melanie Smith, of Shepherdswell, has put forward a suggestion of a strict condition to be imposed on the number of times the circuit can be used during the next two years by having a fixed racing calendar "to give the villagers more certainty".

Mr Dennis has agreed to this condition, which will mean McLaren have to give 90 days notice if they want to change the calendar.

In 1999, councillors were told that Lydden racing circuit could play an important part in the development of an exclusive new Mercedes Benz sports car after McLaren abandoned its plans to test Formula One racing cars on the track.

The company said it still had a firm intention to proceed with the Lydden Circuit development. A factory was due to be built at Lydden to manufacture engine parts for the new car, and this could have resulted in some jobs being created. The new car may also be tested at the circuit, which would be of a smaller and simpler design.

The first phase of the development had been expected to start this year generating between 50 to 100 jobs, mostly for local people. There were also to have been a series of training initiatives including opportunities for liaison with the University of Kent and South Kent College.

The circuit reconstruction was then due to happen in 2003, with the subsequent phases of the building taking place in 2005. At the time, councillors welcomed the plans and one described Ron Dennis as a "knight on a white charger" coming to rescue the area. There had been talk of up to 500 jobs being created.

Cllr Smith, Dover District Council planning officer Tim Flisher, Gordon Lewis, chairman of Denton and Wootton Parish Council, and Jim McDonald a member of the Lydden Action Group, met with Mr Dennis to discuss the latest setback and were given a tour of the new site at Woking which is still under construction.

It is because this site has not yet been completed, that the Lydden scheme is being delayed.