A GREEN group in Warminster has congratulated West Wiltshire District Council for following its advice.

The Warminster Open Space Protection Society carried out its own study of population and housing needs to ensure recreational land was protected.

Operations officer Nigel Linge, who is in charge of the study, said: "The council planning department has been very good, they have listened to our observations."

The society is contesting the council's report recommending housing development on a brownfield site north of Victoria Road.

Mr Linge said: "I have studied housing provision right across Wiltshire and found the predicted number of houses to be built before 2011 will be 1,429.

"According to government guidelines introduced by the Conservatives, 14,000 houses are needed by 2011, so we have offered some alternative development plans."

The society has suggested that the council only allows terraced housing, which Mr Linge says uses less space per house, on a third of the brownfield site, and considers building houses on the old brewery.

The group also claim the population of Warminster is around 20,000 instead of the 14,000 figure provided by the council, making it even more important to keep open land.

Mr Linge said that Yeats Meadow, which was left to the National Trust in 1966 by Major Yeats, has been secured as recreational land by his group.

He said: "We got the National Trust to lease Yeats Meadow to the town as a park, which automatically gives the land R2 protected recreational status.

"No-one can build on it, unless there is a demonstratable surplus of open land."