Tycoon Sir Richard Branson has thrown his weight behind a campaign to give village youngsters a new motorbike track.

The owner of Virgin, who lives at Mill End, Kidlington, has pledged financial support to Kidlington Parish Council's plans to restore a motorcycle track at Stratfield Brake, south of the village.

He decided to help after his son, Sam, 15, complained there was nowhere for him to ride his motorcycle.

He said: "I've written to the local council saying that if they can get permission to put a cycle track on a particular piece of land that's perfect for motorcycles, I'd be delighted to help if it needs a bit of money.

"Young people have great difficulty to find a place to get off the roads and have some fun and there's not a great deal for them to do in Kidlington."

A row between Oxfordshire County Council, which owns Stratfield Brake, and the parish council resulted in the previous motorcycle track at the site off the A4260 being closed in 1998.

A private company was recruited to build humps into the track for the bikes to jump over, but the contractor built the humps from rubbish that belonged in a landfill site and the mess has still not been cleared up.

The parish council, which managed the site together with the Forum Youth Centre, was blamed for the debacle and the county council closed the track. Lack of such facilities for youngsters is blamed for persistent vandalism affecting buildings in the centre of Kidlington.

Parish council clerk Patricia Redpath said: "I think vandalism is likely to go down if we had more facilities for young people.

"They need somewhere to meet and they were absolutely mortified when the track closed down."