§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many requests for access to the village of Imber his Department has received in each of the past five years. [69237]
§ Mr. IngramIn recent years the roads that cross Salisbury Plain training area have been opened on about 25 days each year in order to give the general public access
25Wto Imber village. Once a year, two services are also held at St. Giles Church, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. These occasions are well publicised and certainly obviate many requests for access. In addition, however, we have received both written and telephone requests to provide access to Imber village on days other than those when the roads are already open. As far as possible, these requests are accommodated. Unfortunately, no records are kept of the telephone requests, but the number of written requests in each of the past five years are shown in the following table:
Year Number of written requests 1998 1 1999 1 2000 5 2001 7 2002 to date 8 Total 22