MP meets Army Minister to stop firing range fence

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 26th Jun 2007

Colchester MP Bob Russell will today (Tuesday) be meeting a Defence Minister at the Ministry of Defence in London in an attempt to prevent the erection of a huge fence across the firing range on Middlewick.

The proposal has aroused considerable opposition from residents, but Colchester Council's Planning Committee approved - by a single vote - the application which had been made by the MOD. The vote was six to five, with all those in favour being Conservative councillors.

This morning Mr Russell revealed that he had secured a meeting with Defence Minister Mr Derek Twigg MP where he will try to persuade the Minister not to proceed with the erection of the fence.

A Parliamentary Question tabled by Mr Russell has revealed that the cost of the fence will be £108,000.

The town's MP believes that there is an ulterior motive for erecting the fence, and fears that in due course the Ministry of Defence will claim that the area of Middlewick between Abbot's Road and the firing range fence is surplus for military needs - and could be sold for residential development.

Mr Russell had objected to Colchester Borough Council about the planning application, and had urged the Council to insist on this area of land being handed over as a public open space if they were to grant approval for the fence.

He had also urged that the Council should enter into a wider public consultation with the local community to discuss how best the security concerns, on which the application for a fence had been made, could be addressed without the need to erect a fence.

Liberal Democrat Mr Russell said this morning: "Generations of local people have walked over Middlewick without there being any serious problems.

"Whatever the concerns which have been raised in relatively recent times, I am sure that they can be addressed without the need to spend £108,000 of public money on a fence and without preventing the local community from using a much-loved open area which has been enjoyed for generations."