ONE of Wilton's biggest companies is having to consider moving from the site it has occupied since 1840 because there is no room for it to expand.

E V Naish Group of Companies, of Crow Lane, which has been in business for more than 200 years and employs 90 people, has become so successful that it has outgrown its current premises.

But despite an extensive search it has been unable to find an alternative site in Wilton or the immediate vicinity.

The company consists of Naish Felts Ltd, converters of technical textiles, and its sister company, Wallgate, manufacturers of hand-washing equipment, toilets and wash-hand basins for specific markets.

Two members of the Naish family, John and his son Geoff, are very much involved with the business.

The news of the company's intended move, discussed at a Salisbury district council meeting last week, comes just four weeks after Wilton Carpet Factory confirmed that it was looking for warehousing to enable it to expand further.

Peter Le Count, managing director of Wilton Carpet Factory, which employs 120 people, said he had had to look at warehousing in Andover because there was nothing available in Wilton or the surrounding area.

In March, the South Wiltshire Economic Partnership launched a commercial property website in response to local businesses' concerns about a shortage of commercial premises generally, and particularly in Salisbury.

At last week's meeting of the council's planning and regulatory panel, members approved an outline planning application to demolish the former AE Goetze factory in Netherhampton Road, Salisbury, and allow about 140 houses to be built on the site.

The application was approved by a majority of councillors but Wilton councillor Peter Edge argued strongly that the site should be retained for employment.

"We do not have an over-provision of industrial land in the district," he said.

"The sites at Solstice Park in Amesbury are being snapped up before they are built and losing the Goetze site will leave us nothing for industrial development in and around Salisbury.

"Wilton Carpet Factory is looking for warehousing - they could live with it being in Harnham, but if they had to go to Amesbury for it, they might as well move everything there.

"Naish Felts is moving within the next three years and these losses to Wilton are unacceptable."