RESIDENTS disturbed by noise from a karting track near their homes are to be paid compensation by a council.

Sunderland City Council is offering £3,000 to a woman who moved from her home 400 yards from the countryside site at Warden Law, near Houghton-le-Spring, because she could not stand the noise.

And it will pay £250 each to members of the Warden Law Action Group, which has been campaigning for years for noise levels to be limited.

Local Government Ombudsman Patricia Thomas, who found the council guilty of maladministration, says the offer is a "satisfactory local settlement'' to the complaint.

She ruled the council failed to properly consider noise and limits on track usage when it granted planning permission for the site, which it owns.

Officers drawing up the lease for Manor House Leisure were not told the site's operation would be controlled through the lease.

The council did not deal effectively with action group complaints and allowed the firm to move on site when the lease was not in place.

The council was also criticised for allowing the dumping of organic waste in a former quarry on the site - in breach of the disposal licence - which has led to landfill gas being produced.

Action group spokesman Simon Weightman, a farmer at Old Burdon, Seaham, welcomed the Ombudsman's findings.

He said: "Continual noise and smell from karts using the circuit has caused disturbance and distress to many of us. "Due to the very prominent location of the site, the most stringent noise safeguards should have been applied.''

He said the action group was considering seeking a judicial review of the council's actions and added that he hoped the circuit's management agreement could be improved to better protect neighbours.

The council has agreed to introduce monthly monitoring of landfill gas and to improve the way it handles complaints.

A spokesman said it agreed the settlement because it accepted the Ombudsman's findings.

"We are pleased the Ombudsman accepts we have responded positively to her findings and, in particular, for the action which the council is taking generally to respond to complaints.

"The council has already agreed to the appointment of a customer services manager."