VILLAGERS told today how their summer nights have been disturbed by noisy ravers who gather on common land near their homes in East Yorkshire.

Residents say amplified music has boomed out from raves on Allerthorpe Common, near Barmby Moor, for the past couple of years - and some are concerned that the partygoers might return this summer.

"I couldn't sleep all night during the one last year," said one resident of Sutton Lane. She said she called the police to complain, but was told officers could do nothing about it unless asked by the landowners.

"I tackled one of the ravers when they were walking home afterwards, and he said I was a capitalist!"

Another resident, Dennis Goforth, said: "It's a nuisance to some people, although I never heard anything."

Their comments came after parish councillors at Acaster Malbis, near York, decided to write to their MP, John Grogan, to demand action to halt raves in woodland near the village.

The Evening Press reported last week that about 50 ravers descended on Stub Wood, next to Acaster Airfield, ten days ago, and partied through Saturday night and much of Sunday. It was the third such event in the ancient woodland in less than a year.

The councillors want a change in the law to strengthen police officers' hands in preventing or halting such raves.

At Allerthorpe, local East Riding of Yorkshire councillor John Cox said he had asked the authority to investigate how to deal with the raves. "I live about a mile-and-a-half away and I could hear this thump, thump, thump."

The council's environmental protection manager, Peter Marshall, said there had been several raves in the woodland two years ago involving people from York and Leeds. However, steps were subsequently taken by the landowners, Forest Enterprise, to block vehicular access to the site.

He said there had only been one rave last summer, around the Jubilee weekend, involving local young people who had known how to get in despite efforts to block access. The music at this event had not been as loud as at previous raves.

He said it was easier to prevent raves happening than to halt them once they had started, and efforts were made to trawl the internet to discover when and where events were being planned, particularly before Bank Holiday weekends, when they were often staged.

Updated: 10:44 Wednesday, May 14, 2003