ONE of Wiltshire's iconic white horses is threatened by plans for a new road, say countryside campaigners.

Wiltshire County Council has devised a plan to create a bypass around Westbury, to ease the town's traffic problems.

The £33m scheme has been in the pipeline for some time.

But now the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has objected.

It says the bypass would scar the countryside around the stunning Westbury White Horse, which was created 230 years ago on a site thought to have been carved out by the anglo-saxons after King Alfred The Great won a battle against invading Danes.

Laura Jansen, the CPRE's senior campaigner, said: "It is incredible that the county council wants to push forward this intrusive and damaging scheme.

"This is the oldest of Wiltshire's 12 white horse chalk hill figures.

"This road would have a major impact on the figure and its historic landscape."

She said the proposed bypass would be visible for miles as it would run along the scarp slope of Salisbury Plain and past the Westbury White Horse.

"Why should such a precious landscape have to be damaged by a road that is clearly not a key priority for the region?" she said.

"This iconic landscape has to be protected."

As well as harming the white horse the CPRE said the new scheme would also have a devastating impact on protected wildlife, including 13 species of bat, dormice, water voles, great crested newts, barn owls, badgers and a variety of nesting birds.

Instead the CPRE is pushing the county council to build to the west, instead of the east, of Westbury.

But the county council has dismissed the western route. It is believed the western route would be more expensive and more difficult to obtain government funding for. The authority has secured government cash for the eastern scheme, which it describes as a massively important project that will transform the lives of people in Westbury.

If approved, work could start at the beginning of 2009, with the road open by autumn 2010.