BMX bike enthusiasts have told how they were horrified when their practice trail was flattened by bulldozers at the weekend.

The trail on Holme Lane in Sutton, known by the cyclists as the Dog Field, took more than two years to construct and attracted BMX bikers from all over the north of England.

But the intricate series of mounds, used for jumping and other aerial manoeuvres, was levelled on Friday by workmen acting on behalf of the field owners, Leeds-based Britannia Developments.

The company told the Herald that the bikers were trespassing and the work had been done to prevent them claiming a right to the land in the future.

Now the BMX enthusiasts are appealing to landowners in the hope they can find a replacement site when the sport begins again next summer.

"We were absolutely gutted when we found out the trail had been levelled," said 17-year-old James Welsh, one of the many users of the site. "We've put hours of work into building it up to what it is over the last two-and-a-half years and it's just been flattened."

The Dog Field is featured as one of a number of BMX sites across Europe on an internet-based fanzine called Transgression.

James said this attracted people from other parts of the north, including Manchester and Shipley, to come and try it out for themselves.

"I'm probably the youngest of the group, so we're not a bunch of kids who are going to get bored of it in just a few months," he added.

"It's part of our way of life, it's something we do, like other people play football."

The field was bought by Britannia Developments last year and the company wanted to build 25 homes on it.

The planning application was turned down by Craven planners, who wanted to keep it as green space, but the firm appealed to the Department of the Environment.

However, a Government inspector dismissed the appeal saying the field formed "a significant break" between the villages of Sutton and Glusburn.

John Beeson, Britannia's land manager, told the Herald: "We have carried out the work to protect ourselves and prevent unlawful use of the site.

"To all intents and purposes, people are trespassing and using the site without permission for an activity which it wasn't designed to accommodate."

Mr Beeson added that the company planned to put up a fence adjacent to the field where it meets Holme Lane.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.