A charity set up to give young people a safe place to practice off-road motorcycling is hoping to expand.

Bumpy (Birstall Urban Motorcycle Project for Youth) is a nine-acre motorbike trails park which hosts on and off-road training and competitions.

It has grown from its original aim of providing a constructive activity for troubled teens and now works with people of all ages, from disabled groups to local schools.

The charity is funded in part by the money it makes from providing training for motorcycle licence tests.

Bumpy has now applied to widen its base at Howden Clough, Birstall. The expansion would see a disused railway embankment turned into a challenging off-road area with steep trails for more advanced riders.

Although the small patch of land falls in the green belt, planners have recommended the extension is approved, saying the bike trails would do little harm to the landscape.

Bumpy project manager Carolyne Kenzitt said: “It’s to give us an area of more difficulty for the trials competitions that we run and for our training.

“We run ACU (Auto Cycle Union) motorcycle competitions here. We can run their Novice and Beginners competitions, which are for people wanting to get into trials riding and club trials, but this would allow us to make more difficult areas for the more experienced riders to come along.

“But the main reason we want it is so we can advance our own riders to a standard so we can compete in high-level competitions.

“It’s an old railway banking that just backs on to us, it’s not a huge area. It wouldn’t take up the whole banking. The idea is so we can preserve what’s there and map out a circuit. We will work with the natural features that are there.”

Bumpy was started in 1989 by her sister, PC Julia Morris.

Tired of hearing complaints that youngsters were causing a nuisance on off-road motorbikes, PC Morris had decided to set up a place where they could legitimately practice their hobby.

She died in 1991, and the project set up a memorial trophy in her name.

Bumpy’s expansion plan is set to be discussed at the next meeting of the Heavy Woollen Planning Sub-Committee, at 1pm on Thursday at Dewsbury Town Hall.