AN action group has been launched by villagers in the Bourne Valley to fight the Act Parker traffic plan.

They fear that if the plan, drawn-up by retired Wilton army officer Graham Parker and backed by the South Wiltshire branch of the Association of Council Taxpayers, got official approval, it would drastically increase traffic through the valley and lead to the demolition of homes.

But the architect of the plan, Colonel Graham Parker, this week said that, after listening to the views of villagers, he and his team were now recommending that their proposed road be moved further away from valley communities and go under the end of the runway at Boscombe Down, to avoid any threat to homes.

The Save Bourne Valley action group was formed last week, after Col Parker and his team made a formal presentation of their plans at a public meeting at Gomeldon.

The Act Parker Plan has been on the table for three years now and aims to solve the traffic problems of both Salisbury and Stonehenge.

It proposes diverting the A303 from Beacon Hill, south of the Boscombe Down airfield, running alongside the existing A338 and then curving upwards through the Wylye Valley from Old Sarum, to rejoin the A303 above Berwick St James.

It will be put forward, as an alternative to the official Highways Agency Stonehenge bypass and tunnel plan, at a public inquiry starting in Salisbury on February 17.

But the plan got the thumbs-down in Gomeldon, with all but one person attending the meeting opposing the scheme.

Afterwards, the newly formed action group issued a statement claiming the road scheme would bring an extra 33,000 vehicles a day to the valley, destroying lives and the environment.

They called for the Act Parker Plan to be "put to rest once and for all".

Save Bourne Valley founding member Miles Ashley, who lives at Idmiston, said: "Last week's meeting in Gomeldon was the first time many residents learned of the full horror of this proposal.

"Graham Parker's plan ignores the lives of thousands of residents in the Bourne Valley and takes no account of the environmental damage that would be created by this most ill-conceived proposal."

Salisbury MP Robert Key later backed villagers.

He told the Journal that Col Parker had briefed him on the plan.

However, he remained unconvinced by it - on both economic and environmental grounds.

He said: "I believe the Bourne Valley section is the weakest link in the proposal."

Col Parker said the intention of the Gomeldon meeting had been purely to explain the plan to villagers and listen to their views on it.

"Now we have listened to those views and we are recommending that changes are made to the plan to take the road further away from the Bourne Valley, by taking it through a tunnel at the end of the Boscombe Down runway and cutting across the A345."

He said that, during the past two years, he and his team had made 17 presentations across south Wiltshire and the plan had met with approval everywhere except at Gomeldon.