LAVERSTOCK and Ford will remain an independent parish after it overwhelmingly won a decisive vote on Tuesday.

Salisbury City Council (SCC) will even lose all its 300 houses at Bishopdown Farm following the boundary decision, throwing into jeopardy a planned transfer of key assets and services to the city.

The asset transfer was given the stamp of approval by city councillors last month but, following the defeat, SCC leader Andrew Roberts declared it was “dead in the water”. He was given power to agree the final points of the deal and Cllr Roberts says he will take the issue back before councillors, claiming the deal cannot now go ahead without a “huge precept rise”. The loss of the 300 houses to Laverstock and Ford Parish Council (LFPC) is worth £30,000 a year.

It now means the public toilets in the Market Place and Maltings, which were part of the asset deal, could close as soon as Tuesday.

“I cannot see there being any prospect of [the asset transfer] being affordable or fair,” Cllr Roberts added.

The result however was hailed as a “triumph for localism” by LFPC chairman David Burton.

Adding it was a “humiliating defeat” for SCC, he called for the councils to put the result behind them and hopes they can continue to collaborate closely in future.

It was a heated debate at County Hall, with SCC slammed for its failure to engage with LFPC and to come to a compromise.

Wiltshire Council leader Baroness Scott said the episode had left her feeling “saddened” that two communities in Wiltshire were unable to come to an agreement.

Many councillors agreed with the working party recommendation that Laverstock had a separate identity to Salisbury. Cllr Fred Westmoreland said Laverstock was “worth keeping” while Cllr Chris Devine described SCC as having a “policy of expansion out of control”.

Cllr Devine added that Wiltshire Council had been “blackmailed” by SCC’s threat not to go ahead with the asset transfer.

“It is horrendous in Salisbury because their financial mismanagement is legendary,” he said. “They have no money because they mismanage it. What they are trying to do is rope in another area for collection of money.”

After the meeting Cllr Roberts hit back by describing Cllr Devine’s claims as “utter nonsense” while deriding him as being “stupid”.

Cllr Ian Tomes described city residents as being “embarrassed” by SCC, saying LFPC were a “shining example”.

“To turn round and try to take over your neighbouring parish for no reason other than financial gain is wrong — very wrong,” he added.

It came after Cllr Burton threatened legal action at the start of the meeting if the merger was approved.

In the end only four councillors — believed to be Richard Clewer, Atiqul Hoque, John Walsh and Mary Douglas — representing city divisions voted for the merger with 65 against.

The decision on the houses at Bishopdown was a much tighter contest with the working party recommendation to award the houses to LFPC being approved by 34 votes to 30. Big hitters from the cabinet including Baroness Scott and transport supremo Philip Whitehead backed the motion to move 1,000 homes at Hampton Park from LFPC to SCC.

“I know Bishopdown quite well and I think the whole of that should be in one parish but I believe actually the place that should be is in the city of Salisbury,” Baroness Scott said. “I think that is where it connects to, I think it was an extension when it was built, not of Laverstock but of Salisbury.”

But a two-thirds full chamber rejected their leader’s argument leaving Cllr Roberts despondent.

“[Wiltshire councillors] do not care about Salisbury,” he added.