A three-day motocross event near Winchester will go ahead despite objections from residents.

The Motocross de Nations event is due to take place near Alresford.

Organisers have been granted a licence to play live and recorded music and serve alcohol from 7pm-2am for the three days the 'Olympics of Motocross' will take place from September 29-October 1, at Ovington Down Farm.

The race's organisers SD Events said that the entertainment, similar to previous Motocross Grand Prix events at the nearby Matterley Bowl, would serve as a means to manage the 15,000-strong crowds after the days racing had concluded, keeping spectators on site and stopping them looking for entertainment elsewhere.

However, several residents in the nearby village of Cheriton objected to the proposed entertainments which would produce similar levels of noise to the Boomtown Festival. They argued that the disturbance would be much greater as the event would be nearer to Cheriton, Beauworth and Kilmeston and that the different topography of the land would cause more disturbance than BoomTown.

At a licensing-sub committee review of the application, representatives from SD Events said that there would be measures put in place to minimise any disturbance to residents including angling speakers towards the audience, the staged reduction of noise levels from 11pm, providing a telephone number for residents to report to any disturbances to, as well as members from the council's environmental health team monitoring noise levels from the event.

Concerns were also raised over the use of a PA system and the sounds of the sounds of motorbikes. The organisers made assurances that the system and bikes would only heard during races each day from 12-4pm.

Retired magistrate David Pain, who objected to late on the grounds of preventing a public nuisance due to the late end time and noise levels, asked members of the sub-committee "whose environmental health were they actually looking after?"

The committee concluded that the short period of the disruption and the steps taken by the organisers to minimise noise disruption to residents were sufficient to allow a license to be granted.