Durrington Village Saved from Building Blight

A campaign led by Durrington Councillor Graham Wright has paid handsome dividends. The land to the west of the A345 at Durrington was earmarked for the building of 540 new Army Houses. Cllr Wright, helped by a local working group, the Town Council, MP Claire Perry and over 900 residents, lobbied the MoD and the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), to listen to reason. After the second consultation, they have finally made a 'common sense' decision to exclude the large 85 acres of farmland that sits adjacent to the village from their plans for new service family accommodation.

Cllr Wright said "This is such good news; on Friday the 10th of May I was delighted to hear that the consultants working for DIO agreed that, under no circumstances, would the site that sits next to Netheravon Road Durrington, be built on and so the identity of Durrington Village will not be lost. This will be a great relief to our community. It is rewarding to see that consultation can work and, in this case, with great effort and perseverance, we have succeeded in changing the minds of others. I must take this opportunity to thank all those who helped to achieve this massive u turn, well done"

The final plans are due to be finished this month and, after a final consultation phase, they will be submitted to the planning authority during late summer.

The MoD have also agreed to move the firing range to the north west which will mean less noise for Durrington residents from the larger guns that regularly fire on Salisbury Plain.

Within the housing plans, there is a possibility of building a New School which would be able to accommodate all the new children who will be moving in to Larkhill. The old school land, which is owned by Wiltshire Council, could be used for new army housing.