Estimated construction cost had more than doubled during recent years.

From £14.4M reported for the eastern bypass in 2004, to £33M+ by 2007.

The spiralling cost was because the eastern route is fundamentally unsuitable.

And the eastern bypass design concept has proved to be basically inadequate.

Several attempts over the years to attract funding for a road around Westbury have all been without any success.   Over £4.5M of Wiltshire council tax money has now gone on designing and promoting Wiltshire Council's eastern bypass.

The 1996-based construction estimate presented to the Wiltshire councillors, when they voted for the eastern Westbury bypass scheme, was just £9.4M.

In 2004, W(C)C told the BBSCS consultants that the cost would be £14.4M.

The cost reported in 2004 was possibly in line with the DTI indices for publicly funded road schemes.   But they are often not good value.   The Chief Executive of the Highways Agency had recently acknowledged that the long-held opinion that congestion can be solved by road building has been shown to be wrong.

For the whole period, from 1996 to 2010, overall inflation will be about 33%.

Compare £9.4M in 1996 with £38M by 2010, once W(C)C's theoretical start.

So, whilst the general UK inflation will have increased by only about a third,
the cost of the W(C)C eastern bypass scheme had gone up by over four times.

 By coincidence, councillors were told of a benefits value for an eastern bypass of about three times the 1996 construction cost.   So the eastern bypass now had no economic justification.   And further cost increases were to emerge.

W(C)C also missed out the Westbury International Rail Freight Terminal.

Westbury Station has big railway sidings.  They need an HGV road to them.

Wiltshire (County) Council ignored the big Westbury railway hub (where the London to Plymouth and the Cardiff to Southampton main lines intersect) in its comparative cost/benefit ratio calculations for the alternative routes for a road.

The eastern scheme avoided the railway station and public transport altogether.

Some councillors are now left looking foolish over their costly eastern bypass.

Planning permission has been refused.   Wiltshire Council has wasted £5M.