As ordered by the Government, there is to be a planning inquiry into the eastern Westbury Bypass scheme.

The announcement by the Under Secretary of State for Communities, Baroness Andrews, is on this website.

"It is good news for all who want the right transport solution for Westbury and surrounding communities", said Pat Kinnersly of the A36/A350 Corridor Alliance, a coalition of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, the Campaign for Better Transport, the Friends of the Earth and the Westbury Bypass Alliance.

The decision means that Wiltshire County Council cannot give itself planning permission for the road, as it had hoped to do in the summer of 2007.  The Government issued an Article 14 Direction on 21 June 2007, preventing Wiltshire County Council from doing so.  After further consideration, the Secretary of State decided to call in the WCC planning application and order her own planning inquiry.

This decision was welcome news to the area's MP, Dr Andrew Murrison, and the MEP, Graham Watson,
who had both asked the Secretary of State to order an independent inquiry.

The inquiry inspector will be able to hear a full range of evidence, including the concerns of parish councils to the north and west of Westbury where heavy lorry traffic would be increased by an eastern bypass.

West Ashton and Yarnbrook have objected to the proposal, as improvements to their section of the A350 were dropped from the WCC bypass plan in 2003.  The County Council has said that relief for these villages is its next priority, but now appears undecided about how to achieve it and has not asked for funding.

The County Council's own figures show that HGV traffic through Yarnbrook would increase by over 40%.  Communities such as Southwick also oppose the eastern bypass, because of predicted HGV flow increases.

The Wiltshire Wildlife Trust too asked the Government to order a planning inquiry into the bypass - because of concerns over its impact on a wide range of rare and endangered wildlife species which have the highest level of protection under UK and European law.  National environmental organisations and their local groups, including CPRE, Campaign for Better Transport and Friends of the Earth, object to the adverse impact the road would have on the protected landscape below the Westbury White Horse and on the protected wildlife and water resources of the tranquil Wellhead Valley, between the town and the edge of Salisbury Plain.

The Westbury Bypass Alliance has welcomed the Government decision on behalf of more than a thousand objectors to the eastern bypass route.  The WBA and Wiltshire CPRE commissioned and paid for independent wildlife studies.  These confirmed the presence of dormice on the route of the road and helped to show that more research is needed on the exceptional populations of bats which would be affected by the scheme.

The A36/A350 Corridor Alliance explained that its solicitor warned Wiltshire County Council that it risked a legal challenge if it tried to give itself planning permission.  The ACA solicitor's letter was not brought to the attention of the WCC regulatory committee considering the planning application on 16 May 2007.   So the letter was sent on to the Government.  Which has agreed with us and the other organisations or individuals who asked for a proper inquiry into this scheme.   The inspector will hear all points of view and we hope that this will lead to a real integrated transport solution which will meet the needs of the whole area.

Further Notes:

* Wiltshire County Council anticipated an inquiry into compulsory purchase and side roads orders.  If WCC had been allowed to approve its own planning application, the subsequent public inquiry would have been comparatively limited and it may not have allowed the choice of route to be independently examined.  But, now, we will have a full planning inquiry, where the route and so much else should be under proper scrutiny.

* WCC’s late issue of its Purchase and Roads Orders has since delayed the Inquiry until about mid 2008.

* Wiltshire County Council had hoped to start building its eastern bypass in 2008 and to open it in 2010.

* In January '07, WCC bought in 'early contractor involvement' with the civil engineering company Osborne.

* By Autumn '07, WCC had over-spent its annual fee budget on its Westbury bypass scheme by £0.25M.

* By now, WCC will have spent as much as £3M in developing and promoting its eastern bypass scheme.
But this is not shown in our council tax bills.

* Government funding for the road is dependent on WCC overcoming all environmental objections, obtaining planning approval and satisfying the Department for Transport that the £33+M price still represents value for money.  The bypass scheme package includes just £1.3M for subsequent town centre improvements.

* The estimate for the eastern bypass scheme has gone up from £9M, to £14M, to £33M - and still rising...

* The WCC eastern bypass scheme is glibly ignoring the impending crises of climate change and oil scarcity - also Government policies which call for transport integration and an end to planning for car-dependency.

* The EU Habitats Directive and UK Habitats Regulations of 1994 require a developer to show that there are 'imperative reasons of overriding public interest' for building a road which might endanger protected species. The developer has to show that there is no satisfactory alternative to its road scheme.  The ACA says that the eastern bypass scheme cannot pass these tests in its present form.

* Wiltshire Wildlife Trust says that WCC's bat gantries and dormouse rope bridges are likely to be ineffective - calling these ideas 'a leap of faith that is not supported by a reasonable extrapolation of the evidence'.

* Wiltshire County Council is assembling an array of paid experts to put its view at the planning inquiry.

* WCC is also hiring an expensive barrister, also funded by our council tax, to represent it at the inquiry.

* To attempt to match this, to put the case for the landscape, environment, wildlife, transport integration  - and the people of West Wiltshire as a whole - we are into a huge c.£40k voluntary fund-raising exercise.

* For otherwise we will simply be out-spent - though from our own pockets!   But we have done well so far.

* The White Horse Alliance has been formed to represent all objectors to WCC's eastern Westbury bypass.

* Wiltshire County Council's expenditure on its Westbury Bypass plan has now been made really untenable by the exclusion of its scheme from the South West Regional Spatial Stategy and recent EiP Panel Report.

* As the South West EiP Panel Report is also now recommending new regional transport policies and a new set of transport priorities (which do not include any Westbury Bypass), the White Horse Alliance proposed that the new arrangements be in place before the planning inquiry into the WCC Westbury Bypass scheme.

* Wiltshire County Council tried to pre-empt the process, by using muscle to push for a quick inquiry start. WCC failed.  This web-site tells you elsewhere about some of Wiltshire County Council's tricky tactics.

* At the pre-inquiry meeting on 3 March, all parties agreed that they would be ready to start on 17 June.

* This was on the basis of having all information.   There will be a second pre-inquiry meeting on 19 May.

* An abiding impression of the South West RSS EiP Panel Report is of a focus on access to public transport, such as our railway system.   Some desperately say that the WCC eastern bypass scheme is the last way out for Westbury, that we must press ahead with it regardless of policy, public money or common sense.    A poor argument, especially when the eastern route would never connect with the railway station.