THE Council for the Protection of Rural England is today urging the Government to change the planning laws which allow noisy events like motor sport meets, car boot sales and clay pigeon shooting to be held in rural areas almost every summer weekend.

Under present rules, landowners can stage such events for "temporary use" for either 14 or 28 days a year, depending on local by-laws, without obtaining planning permission.

But the CPRE says that say these laws can be easily flouted - by, say, simply moving an event from one field to the next - allowing the "racket" of noise to take place virtually every summer weekend - and in some cases, virtually all year round.

It wants the Government to change the law so that such events would in future need planning permission from the local council.