TWO Salisbury Plain communities - Durrington and Larkhill - have given a resounding 'no' to English Heritage plans for a multi-million-pound visitor centre.

Residents unanimously rejected the plans at a packed public meeting at Durrington village hall last week - declaring that the chosen Countess Road East site was the wrong place for the proposed centre, which is expected to attracted some 850,000 visitors a year.

And they fiercely opposed the proposal for a land train linking the centre to drop-off points within walking distance of the ancient monument.

Speaker after speaker said the visitor centre scheme would intensify traffic problems in the Amesbury, Durrington, Bulford and Larkhill areas and bring disruption to their lives.

There was particular anger over the land train idea, with residents claiming the northern route for the train would pass too close to homes in Fargo Road, Larkhill - especially to the gardens of Steel Houses.

Residents said the trains would pose a threat to the safety of children, the security of their homes and property values. They also claimed that having the trains running every ten minutes at peak times would blight their lives.

The only part of the plan that appealed to them was a proposal to close the A344 running past the stones, as it would lead to the closure of the notorious Stonehenge Fork accident blackspot.

Earlier, the meeting had been give a presentation on the English Heritage planning application by David Milton, of the special projects department of Salisbury district council's planning office.

Mr Milton said that, after 15 years, English Heritage had finally submitted firm plans for a visitor centre and the council was now conducting a comprehensive consultation exercise.

He said letters had been sent out to 13,000 households in the northern area of the district (some 33,000 residents) and to 120 statutory organisations, and all the views expressed would be taken into consideration before councillors decided whether or not to grant the scheme planning permission.

Durrington parish council chairman David Healing urged as many people as possible to make representations and to get them to the district council by the October 28 deadline.

Immediately after the public meeting, Durrington parish council convened an extraordinary meeting and voted to oppose the English Heritage application.

Parish councillor John Todd said local people had made it clear they disliked the plans and accused English Heritage of being out of touch. "We think the scheme will be a total intrusion into our lives but English Heritage are just not on the same wavelength, " he said.

Unless the plans are called in by deputy prime minister John Prescott for a public inquiry, they are expected to go to the district council's northern area committee for comment early next year and then to the planning and regulatory committee for a decision by the spring.