VILLAGERS have vowed to speak out against continued use of a field for travellers during the Great Dorset Steam Fair at a County Hall planning meeting in April.

The pledge came at the end of a packed two-hour meeting in Tarrant Monkton, where villagers and neighbours from Tarrant Launceston made their feelings known to senior figures from Dorset County Council.

The council's leaders backed the site, between Hinton and Launceston, at a cabinet meeting on March 5.

A committee hearing to decide planning permission is due on April 18. But plans for permanent use of the site have been shelved for now.

The planning committee will consider an application for further temporary use of the field, south of Hyde Hill, on the eastern side of the C25 road.

Cllr Angus Campbell, the leader of Dorset County Council, addressed the Monkton meeting in his capacity as the local county councillor.

The strength of local opposition to the site had not been fully registered at County Hall by the time of the last cabinet meeting, said Mr Campbell.

He pledged to represent the views of Monkton and Launceston people, but warned that he was also bound to represent other parishes in his Hambledon constituency who may back the site.

Paul Speakman, the chairman of the Tarrant Monkton and Launceston Travellers' Site Committee, rejected a charge of Nimbyism - ("not in my back yard" mentality) - saying villagers were not arguing against the Steam Fair.

A show of hands supported the principle of a council-operated site.

But the time had come for other villages to share the burden, said Mr Speakman, who suggested that last year's successful management of the visiting travellers could be repeated elsewhere.