I HAVE just joined the campaign to save Britford Lane meadows in Salisbury from a new housing development.

One of the great charms of Salisbury (and very good for the tourist industry) is the fact that little spurs of countryside come close to the city centre.

There are still five of these spurs – the cathedral water meadows, the Bourne river valley, the Avon Valley nature reserve, the open hillside leading to Castle Hill and Britford Lane meadows.

Building on this highly attractive piece of countryside would, in my view, be horrendous and would merely pander to the greed of property developers.

This is just one of thousands of proposed housing developments all over England which are threatening to turn our green and pleasant land into a vast housing estate.

I believe passionately that we must protect our God-given heritage of the beautiful English countryside and not sacrifice it on the altar of economic growth (as the present government is doing).

The Conservative MP for Stratford upon Avon Nadhim Zahawi warned a while back that the “enduring legacy” of the David Cameron government could be the concreting over of the English countryside.

Let’s not allow that to happen.

MARK LONG Salisbury