ROADS will be closed and parking banned in certain streets when the Olympics come to Hadleigh.

London 2012 organisers have drawn up restrictions to prevent thousands of spectators from clogging up the streets surrounding Hadleigh Farm, when it hosts the London 2012 mountain biking on August 11 and 12.

Drivers who flout the parking restrictions face £200 fines and could have their cars towed away.

Parking will be banned within the majority of Hadleigh town centre between 8am and 6.30pm on event days, but residents and businesses within the zone will be issued with permits, to enable them to park there.

Streets within the zone include Shipwrights Drive, Rectory Road, New Road, Lynton Road, Nicholson Road, Beech Road and Parkfields.

Castle Lane, Park Chase and Mount Zion will be closed to traffic, to provide spectator access to the biking course.

Motorists will be banned from stopping on the A13 all the way from London to Hadleigh Farm, because it is the official route for athletes and officials accessing the mountain biking venue.

Restrictions will apply between 8am and 6.30pm from up to three days before the event.

About 40,000 spectators are expected to visit Hadleigh Farm over the two days of competition.

Organisers are encouraging people to catch trains to Leigh railway station, or use park-and-ride facilities at Barleylands Farm in Billericay, Case New Holland tractor plant, in Basildon, and Waterside Farm leisure centre, on Canvey.

A spokesman for the London 2012 organising committee said: “To accommodate the large number of visitors to the mountain bike events, as well as to minimise disruption to residents and local businesses, it is essential traffic and parking in the area around the venue are properly managed.”

The restrictions were trialled during a test event held at the venue last July, and deemed to be successful by organisers.

Gordon Wright, 58, of Beech Road, Hadleigh, said: “I think it’s good we, the residents, will have our parking spaces protected, but it seems a lot of fuss to go to for a sporting event we won’t even get to see.”

Castle Point Council is selling 300 tickets for the mountain biking exclusively to residents of five streets surrounding the venue, to compensate for the disruption they face.

People living in Chapel Lane, Castle Lane, Park Chase, Seaview Terrace, and Mount Zion, will be able to buy two tickets per household at face value from the authority.