VILLAGERS in Winterbourne Bassett, near Avebury, are up in arms over plans by a millionaire Austrian Count to build homes on a cricket pitch.

For 20 years The Piggery field has been used as a recreational area by villagers and as the pitch for Winterbourne Bassett Cricket Club.

But just days before the cricket season was about to start, a fence was put up across the field by its owner, Count Konrad Goess-Saurau.

The Count, who established the Marlborough Cup and is a benefactor to Marlborough Rugby Club, is based at the 4,500-acre Temple Farm, in Ramsbury.

He has not renewed the cricket club's lease on the land and announced his wish to sell part of it for four homes.

The Count has appointed four trustees who live in the village to administer and maintain the land while his company, Everset Holdings, attempts to sell a 30-metre strip next to the road through the village.

The trustees, who are working on the project unpaid, say they are attempting to ensure the whole field is not sold for development. They say the fence has been put up so a potential buyer can see the area being sold.

They have a legal agreement with Count Goess-Saurau, through Everset Holdings, that if the strip of land is sold for houses then the remaining part, containing the cricket pitch, will be given in perpetuity to a village trust.

The asking price of the land is just under £1 million, and if it is sold the Count will give ten per cent of the selling price, expected to be £95,000, to the village to pay for the maintenance and development the field.

Trustee David Keig, 54, a commercial director, said: "We want to limit any extended development of the field there could be, and facilitate the best use of it for the village that we can.

"This is not a case of us and them we have taken on this case without payment because we want to do what we believe is best for the village."

But villagers are angry at the move.

Mike Hopkins, 45, said: "People use the field for all sorts of reasons, not just cricket, and there is something fundamentally wrong that someone can just erect a fence and end it."

Des Clarke, the chairman of Winterbourne Bassett Cricket Club, said: "We are trying to negotiate with the trustees appointed by the Count. At this stage I am unable to comment any further."

Count Goess-Saurau, was contacted but was unavailable for comment.