AN organiser of a trailblazing motor rally around Tendring has moved to address residents’ safety concerns about the event.

The Corbeau Seats race on April 22, which has now been approved by Essex Highways, will have special timed-trial stages spread out across the district.

The event is being organised by Chelmsford Motor Club and will be the first to make use of new legislation which allows closed-road motorsport in England.

It will allow road-legal cars, with safety and performance modifications, to compete.

The race will consist of three loops at five different stages with drivers starting one at a time at 30-second intervals.

They will be timed around the course and the winner will be the driver with the least combined time across all the stages.

But residents have raised fears about the safety of spectators and last week councillor Mike Bush claimed holding a stage on the accident blackspot at Brickman’s Hill in Bradfield was “ludicrous”. But Tony Clements, event director, said: “We wanted the routes to be as slow as possible. We wanted roads which are twisted and narrow to keep the average speed down by drivers.

“We have chosen roads with a combination of bends and as less houses on them as possible.”

He said parts of the route, such as accident black spot Brickman’s Hill, in Bradfield, have been identified as potentially dangerous.

He said: “When we checked the routes we immediately identified that road as a potential danger spot and we will be protecting that bridge with big straw bales and competitors will be aware that it is there.

“As part of the risk assessment we do for the event, as we go through the closed roads we are assessing everything and where necessary we will put in measure to protect things that people might hit.”

For additional safety measures spectators will only be allowed to watch the rally from designated areas and residents will have allocated time slots throughout the day to access roads on the route.

The race will soon be open to entrants and Mr Clements thinks all 120 places will be filled within an hour.

He added: “We hold rallies across the country all the time in forests and on airfields, but this is the first time in the country one has been staged on public roads.”

For more information, visit corbeauseatsrally.co.uk.