<-- Read all about it here on our A350 Westbury Bypass independent information website -->

View Wiltshire Council's would-be highway through the heart of the country.

Which would have been even worse, with ugly secret gantries on embankments.

In July 2007, the dud scheme was called in for a since set back Planning Inquiry, which has now recommended refusal of planning permission.    This refusal has been endorsed by the Government.   The dud eastern road scheme is no more.

Government letters ordered a full public inquiry into the W(C)C eastern route, which, as noted in the GOSW letter, was in potential conflict with many policies. And it was not in the proposed Regional Spatial Strategy for the South West.

Wiltshire (County) Council failed in its attempt at a pre-emptive rush start.

Wiltshire Council's myopic outdated A350 road-building project was not in any transport priorities proposed in the Regional Strategy or by the Government.

Strange weight restriction:   Who wanted to make HGVs go the extra mile...?

A reasonable way forward may be to properly consider worthwhile solutions.

Westbury main-line railway station desperately needs a decent access road.

A western route alongside the railway track, to the station, road-rail freight terminal and the trading estates, is shorter than the eastern bypass scheme.
It would be of significantly less cost.  It would not be expensively contending with environmental difficulties.   It would be a solution for the 21st century.

The W(C)C 'far western' route is of similar length to W(C)C's eastern scheme.
Any extra length was for a bypass of the longest A350 tailbacks at Yarnbrook.

If road-to-rail freight interchange at the Westbury railway hub was developed, for obvious environmental advantages, HGV congestion would be cut anyway.

This web-site reflects the genuine local opinion about a solution at Westbury.
In the last survey ever conducted by Wiltshire (County) Council, up to 79% of Westbury area residents with a view were opposed to the eastern route.     As few as 21% were in favour of the so-called 'preferred' eastern bypass scheme. Read our summarised factual analysis of the Westbury Bypass Opinion Survey. Overwhelmingly, 75% of the local public response wanted a western solution.

Who would have honestly wanted an A350 HGV highway to be here?

This is a view of where the unpopular eastern road was actually routed.

The planning application was 2400 obscure pages.   But one crass council.

Here are some simulated panoramas of the intrusive rural highway scheme.

This is at a time when rational solutions for West Wiltshire are really required.

The eastern bypass development was inept gambling - now a complete waste.

This wrong road through the best areas would mess-up footpaths & bridleways.

Most of the responses to the 2005 'consultation' were objections to the scheme.

Most of the responses to the 2007 'consultation' were objections to the scheme.

The expedient eastern route through the countryside has encountered problems.

Environmental mitigation concepts, which were hastily put together to meet the opportunist timing of the 2005 planning application, turned out to be inadequate.

Tailbacks at adjacent Yarnbrook, far worse than in Westbury - are being ignored.

It is worth pointing out that little has been done to re-direct long distance lorries to/from the M4 by other than the A350 - as approved BBSCS recommendations.

Wiltshire's HGV map still portrays the unsuitable A350 as a strategic lorry route, which directs HGVs through towns & villages, against reality and agreed policy.

W(C)C's own route flows show that an eastern Westbury bypass would impose yet more HGVs on to other communities which already suffer twice as many.

Why not follow a sustainable solution of an integrated western access road alongside the railway, routed directly to the station and industrial area...?

Ludicrously, rail freight integration is a council policy!    See 'Freightway'
(and observe the contradiction between Wiltshire freight policy and what the council does).

'Novel road plans will put nature first'  - an amazing incredible claim.

Nature as it is was seen on our 2007 walk along the eastern route.

Please continue to help us to save the valley from the builders.

Please support our fund-raising against the folly for 2009.

And also please support the WHA's campaign in 2009.

And help towards saying goodbye to the eastern era this year.

An all wrong road scheme which had a ridiculous way to go.