A search is under way for a possible site for an off road motorbike track.

The move is in response to calls from motorcyclists who want a legal venue for their hobby.

Representatives from Brighton and Hove City Council and police have met and officers from the council have been touring the area looking into possible sites for a track.

A report into the investigation is due to be presented to the authority's environment committee in the coming months.

Bikers have been calling for a track in the Brighton and Hove area for almost 30 years but without success.

In recent years, as the popularity of motorbikes has grown, so has the number of people appealing for an off-road track.

As the popularity of off-road biking has increased, so has the irritation of residents whose lives have been blighted by riders using sites around the city illegally.

Residents in Cowley Drive in Woodingdean, were infuriated by the invasion of off-road bikers in the summer and complained about the incessant noise of the bikes.

Residents in Whitehawk, where off-road bikers have been using a plot of land for their sport, which is supposedly a nature reserve, complain regularly to the Whitehawk Crime Prevention Forum about the illegal bikers.

Fans of off-road biking have inundated the council with calls for a legal track. Residents in Woodingdean, handed a petition containing 600 signatures to the city council calling for a track in the summer.

Youth worker Sue Barnes, established a motorbike club for young riders to encourage them to ride legally and safely.

Members of Whitehawk MC face expulsion if they take part in illegal riding and, in return, the club makes regular trips to a legal off-road venue in Wales.

Bikers say if a legal track was created locally, restrictions on its operating hours would be enforced and illegal biking stamped out, which would be a positive outcome for residents.

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove City Council said: "Officers are still looking at sites and a report will go to the committee soon."

The spokesman would not confirm which sites had been looked at but added: "The council is investigating and they are going around looking at possible sites."