Peter Gabriel Joins Campaign Against Solsbury Hill Development

Peter Gabriel has jetted in from Los Angeles to lend his weight to a campaign against development in a valley which he immortalised in song.

Campaigners say the Woolley Valley, near the city of Bath in the west of England, has been "completely ruined" by a farming company which bought land from broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby. Golden Valley Paddocks has built an access road, mobile home and agricultural sheds on the site, yet the local authority has refused retrospective planning permission five times.

Woolley Valley lies below Solsbury Hill, which provided the title for his first single as a solo artist after leaving Genesis in 1977.

At a meeting in Bath, Gabriel told protesters he had lived in the area for 13 years and still felt close to it, the Daily Telegraph reported. "There was a tremendous sense of community there and it had a better community spirit than anywhere I have lived in the world," he said.

''When the heavy snowfall came and people were snowed in neighbours would share their milk and visit one another -- that's the kind of place it was. That's why I was somewhat disturbed when I heard these developers are so deliberately flouting the planning laws and that there has been so little reaction from the council."