It is used for live firing, training without ammunition and artillery exercises The MoD says it has made generous gestures. Riders and walkers can access tank tracks when live firing is suspended and there is a civilian glider club But campaigners say the MoD’s approach is mean. Large chunks of the Plain are off limits, almost a third of it permanently, including the ghost village of Imber, appropriated during the Second World War. At golf courses attached to Army camps serving personnel can jump waiting lists and membership fees. Game shoots and fishing reserves exclude civilians.In the hamlet of Harefield, civilians complain that children are forced to walk on busy roads without pavements because the Army has blocked paths across the Plain.

But this view is not always shared by the military, with walkers routinely intimidated by MoD gamekeepers and wardens.There is no question that Salisbury Plain’s 94,000 acres play a key role in troop training. Welcome to Salisbury Plain, feudal playground of the Ministry of Defence.Relations between locals and the military on the Plain, the MoD’s biggest training area in the UK, are tense. Peter Kilfoyle, the defence minister, has said that “the presumption of access should be strengthened”. The successful applicant for his post will receive a salary of more than £40,000, and “a handsome performance bonus if the bid is successful”.Yesterday, Mr Dharamsey said that he would be interviewing four hereditary peers on Wednesday..

By Mark Rowe

By Mark Rowe
9 January 2000It is a bizarre sight. Four miles from Stonehenge, off-duty Army officers potter around a golf course as helicopters fly overhead. Further afield, soldiers fish an exclusive stretch of the Avon A sign spells out the message: “Out of Bounds”. The final bids must be tabled by the end of February.Mr Dharamsey said: “I think I have a one in seven chance of winning the lottery [contract] but my bid will be the only one which is denominated in euros.”Mr Dharamsey has advertised for a “high-profile hereditary peer with a proven track record in and out of Parliament” to support his bid. The Naional Lottery Commission, which will announce the winner of the next contract in June, said that it had received letters of intent from four other interested parties, understood to be British companies. The strongest challenge, however, is expected to come from The People’s Lottery, the not-for-profit consortium put together by the entrepreneur Richard Branson.