THE county council has confirmed that it has no interest in selling Minety School's playing fields to developers.

Two weeks ago, district council planners unanimously rejected an application to build 34 houses on the site. Now a spokesman for the county council, which owns the land, said it would not have sold it anyway.

Planning regulations do not prohibit applications relating to land owned by another party, so the application was able to reach the planning committee without the consent of the land's owners, Wiltshire County Council.

A spokesman for the council said that it had nothing to gain from selling the land and it had objected to the original application.

The proposal, put forward by developer FPD Saville, was to build the houses on the school field, which is inside the village's development boundary, and then build a new playing field on an adjacent field outside the area, where building is permitted.

This would get around planning regulations that allow community facilities to be put outside the village's development boundary, but prohibit housing to be built there.

Strength of feeling in Minety about the development is strong and over a hundred villagers went to the planning meeting in Purton on March 13 to make their feelings known.

Parish council chairman, David Brown, welcomed the county's statement. "That is wonderful news and long may it last," he said.

The parish received official notification that the application had been turned down yesterday and last night a meeting to discuss the situation was attended by representatives of the parish council, school governors and pre-school.

The committee rejected the application on the grounds that it would create an unacceptable number of extra car journeys through the village. This is against planning guidelines discouraging developments away from services and employment, forcing people to use their cars. Nigel Whitehead, of FPD Saville, said it would appeal.