The fed-up group of young people, the eldest of which is 18, had been using Westfield green, where they had put up two wooden ramps to allow them to practise their jumps.

After using the site for about a month, the ramps were removed and destroyed by St Edmundsbury Council, without an explanation.

The move led to two of the group speaking at a Clare Parish Council meeting, where they asked for help in finding a suitable location in the town – their nearest official BMX site is in either Wickhambrook or Belchamp Otten – for a track.

A letter signed by 12 youngsters was also given to the parish council.

Liam Bradley, 18, said: "It's a shame really. There's not a lot of places here we can do it. Everywhere we go we get complaints. We are not bad, we don't leave rubbish, we do what we do, we do our jumps and go home."

A spokeswoman for St Edmundsbury Council said: "While we want to encourage children to play outside as much as possible, we have to make sure they can do so safely in our play areas.

"There was a real risk that young children on the nearby cradle swings could have been hurt by people using the BMX ramps.

"What we didn't do well was tell the BMX users why this had to be done and we'll certainly try to be more informative in the future."

Clare Parish Council is talking to landowners to see if a suitable site can be found.